Posted by Jim Allen on July 27, 1999 at 06:24:27:
In Reply to: Re: Some Good Thoughts posted by Mike Tschebull on July 26, 1999 at 20:23:23:
: : : Dear Sophia,
: : : Thank you for the comments. I am quite certain that this rug is not Kurdish.
: : : Unfortunately, when faced with a plethora of weavings without "Schurrmann-esque" labels, we often revert to suggesting Kurdish. Because the Kurds wove so many different designs and with such diverse structures, "Kurdish" often becomes, erroneously, an attribution by default.
: : : Similarly, "Shahsavan" is often applied by default to geometric weaving (including pile rugs) with animals or human figures. Ebay, for example, currently abounds with Shahsavan attributions, some of which are blatantly incorrect.
: : : I have very carefully avoided an attribution because I believe that, in the end, none can be certain. While this rug has some attributes of what I believe are Shahsavan, some aspects (particularly the border) give me pause.
: : : In the spirit of shameless self-promotion, I will say that I am speaking at ICOC in Italy on the topic of Shahsavan pile weaving and that the images in this Salon will be a part of my paper. Therefore, constructive criticism is most welcome.
: : : Wendel
: : :I have recently been exposed to a fair number of verified Shahsaven pile weavings.... I have a very very good small Shahsaven pile rug I will send you a picture of which I acquired in Turkey. Jim
: Re the above, I don't want to be a grouch, but could you tell me how "verified"? "He said, she said" doesn't really count.
: You aren't being a grouch. There was a reason I didn't want to get into "verified". Let me say this though, the man showing me the pieces was Hermanns main repair guy in Istanbul. There is no greater authority in my mind than this person, a sophisticated man, who has handled more rugs than most of us will ever see. His thoughts were of a very technical nature about structure and it would be great if I had transcribed the musings but I was too blown away by the beautiful pieces I was shown. What I said in my above post is mostly all I remember, that and my felings about what a Shahsavan weaving is. He said the area around Karaja has produced some great "Shahsaven" material. Jim