Dear all, I thought you might enjoy seeing the unusual composition of
the small (26" x 18") Senneh kilim shown at the TM.  The field consists entirely
of birds , not of floral motifs (which are found in the border). Some of
the birds are free standing while others are stacked one on top of
another, totemic style. I have placed small numbers (1-4) in the image on
the right with the ruler showing the bodies of the birds. Number 4 is a
bit more difficult to envision than the others. The bottom three may
represent three different species of birds since they are drawn
differently and the freestanding birds are yet of a different appearance.
Given the careful and consistent execution of the weaving, I think this is
not accidental. With somewhere around 65 wefts per inch, the kilim is
among the finest I have ever seen. At least on my monitor, the colors here
are more accurate than what you see in the Salon. In the more than twenty
years I have owned this kilim, I have not seen another in this style,
although I know it has a mate somewhere. In Ghereh issue 10 (December,
1996), Taher Sahahi wrote of a group of kilims from the village of Harsin,
just to the east of Kirmanshah in Luristan. The Harsin kilims are much
coarser than this one, but exhibit a similar totemic stacking of images
and birds. The style of the birds is quite similar. I have always called
this kilim Senneh, mainly because of its fineness, the colors and the
borders, which is similar to what are commonly thought of as Kurdish
motifs found in that area. Without comparable examples, however, a precise
attribution is difficult. Can anyone recall seeing anything similar? Best,
Wendel |