Posted by Harry Ulfan on July 05, 1999 at 20:51:33:
In Reply to: Re: Elena's Khali Cover Rug posted by Marvin Amstey on July 05, 1999 at 20:23:12:
: : Dear folks -
: : I share Harry's admiration for this little rug. I especially like how the weaver has used color to create an asymmetric effect despite a largely (the design is also two and a fraction guls long on the warp length) symmetrical graphic design.
: : It's rug I've been tempted to ask Chris Walters to have his Ersaris copy for me.
: : One small correction. Harry meant "knots per decimeter" rather than "KPSI." Dividing 728 KPSD by 15.5 tells us that this piece has a KPSI of about 46. That's fairly coarse for an Ersari, which tend to average 50-70 KPSI.
: : Regards,
: : R. John Howe
: Dear John, Harry, et al.
: I respectfully disagree with you about the cover rug on Tzareva's book. At first I admired it - even coveted it - until more careful appreciation revealed too many things I disliked. The field has four very crowded, stylized gulli guls- Tmerjin saryk gul combos; the border is a very crowded stylization of Beshir design. To me the design is unsatisfactory, but the color combos look OK. The end finishes do not look like Ersari weaving to my eye. Could this rug be an Uzbek, or more generally, a middle Amu Darya commercial weaving?
: Regards,
: Marvin
Dear Lady and Gents;
Marla , if you read Jim's posts again , I think that
you will observe some possible connection
between examining age and aesthetic considerations. This is what prompted me to
include my thoughts. John , thanks a lot for
your conversion from the metric system to inches.
Marvin , it is possible that your first reaction to
that Ersari rug was the most "genuine" (from
the heart) . The rationalisation that came later
reduced your initial joy which to my mind is
unfortunate.
The bottom line is , in my modest opinion , that
a piece of art that does not grab our senses
aesthetically can be 20000 years old and still
not cut it. So , in some cases it is poinless to
put such a piece under the microscope or
subject it to carbon tests.
Harry.