| Subject | : | The back of a bag is not just a rag |
| Author | : | Patrick Weiler |
| Date | : | 09-13-1999 on 10:00 a.m. |
| jpweiler@worldnet.att.net Steve, Have you run out of bags to show us and now you are resorting to showing us the backs? (Dear Turkotek'ers: This question is an example of an "ad hominem" remark as noted in the rules above, and not meant to be vituperative, but, in fact educational.) But, I digress. Back to the bags! You have not (probably purposely) mentioned the ubiquitous Bakhtiari cargo bag backs with their colorful, indecipherable "patches" of decoration on their otherwise striped surfaces. Photographs have shown the Bakhtiari on migration with these large bags upside down on camels, showing the backs of the bags. I suspect that these decorative "patches" were actually identifying badges so a family could recognize their animal in the midst of a herd of animals belonging to their fellow travellers. How better to know which camel held the tea fixin"s when it was time to take a break? It would be similar to us putting a "luggage tag" on our suitcase when flying to allow us to identify our bag from all of the hundreds of others at the airport. Think about that when you are in the airport in Milan watching the carousel going around, late for the opening of the ICOC! Patrick Weiler |
| Subject | : | RE:The back of a bag is not just a rag |
| Author | : | Steve+Price |
| Date | : | 09-13-1999 on 10:30 a.m. |
| sprice@hsc.vcu.edu Dear Patrick, Ad hominem, indeed! That's strike one, pal. I thought this was a groundbreaking topic. Hardly anybody ever pays attention to backs of bags, usually with good reason, but there are some that are pretty neat - and you heard it here first. Alas, I cannot go to Milan. I'm a university professor. They don't expect much of me, being tenured and all, but they do want me to show up for my classes, and going off to Milan during the academic year doesn't work. Regards, Steve P |
| Subject | : | RE:The back of a bag is not just a rag |
| Author | : | Patrick Weiler |
| Date | : | 09-14-1999 on 12:38 a.m. |
| jpweiler@worldnet.att.net Steve, You're tethered? Isn't that illegal? I have a couple of Luri bags with striped backs that are literally luscious, a riot of contrasting colors. The colors on the backs of bags, when extant, are a great indicator of age and quality. You are right that "they don't get no respect" though. I also have a Kurdish grain bag with an unusual striped back. The stripes on 2/3 are evenly spaced, whereas 1/3 of the stripes are 1/2 as wide. It is as though the weaver decided it was way too much work to make such small stripes and decided to make the rest twice as wide, thereby decreasing the frequency of color changes. Interestingly, there is a patch of the narrow stripes about the size of a cigarette package sewn onto a hole in the part of the back with the larger stripes. The other type of bags with the most intricate backs, as has been noted, are Baluch bags. Some of the backs are as delightful as the fronts. As for displaying the backs, I sometimes turn the silly things over for a while. Nobody even notices. By the way, you had better be careful of promoting the backs of bags. Sam "fragment" Gorden might disapprove! Patrick Weiler |
| Subject | : | RE:The back of a bag is not just a rag |
| Author | : | Steve Priice |
| Date | : | 09-14-1999 on 06:15 a.m. |
| sprice@hsc.vcu.edu Dear Patrick, My day job isn't really all that bad, although it does interfere with my leisure activities at times. I've not promoted bag backs as fragments, of course, although you might reasonably argue that the faces of bags that had interesting backs are, themselves, fragments. And Sam really doesn't have problems with things that are incomplete. He doesn't understand the appeal of "Der Kazarians", and neither do I. It's just not a moral issue to me. And, since you mention promotion of bag backs, I have seen some for sale on eBay from time to time. Usually represented as just what they are, although one well known eBay dealer represented a pair of backs from which the faces had been removed as an unusual, intact flatwoven khorjin. Regards, Steve Price |