conventional yastik

Hello John:

The more "conventional" looking Yastik in part 2 of your presentation is a piece Joe Fell thought might be Kurdish. I think it is from the Konya area and not Kurdish. There is a fairly well known group of rugs from Konya using this repeat device, often on a red ground as here. You may even recall an example at the Smithsonian program we did last summer. The lapets are another identifier.

Regards, michael wendorf

Dear folks -

Michael Wendorf points out that this "conventional" looking yastik in Joe Fell's rug morning is likely not Kurdish, but instead part of a known group from central Turkey, perhaps the Konya area.



Brian Morehouse does include one such as Plate 61 in the "central Turkey" section of his book on Turkish yastiks.



Just to be entirely explicit. Michael's indicators were the design and the presence of lappets.

Lappets occur most frequently in yastiks (and in larger rugs) made in central and western Turkey. This is not to say that lappets are never used in pieces from eastern Turkey (where the bulk of the Kurds are) but Morehouse shows only one such (Plate 119), and unless it has been reduced, it has lappets only on one end. Lappets on pieces made in eastern Turkey are rare enough that Morehouse comments on their presence on this latter piece.

Regards,

R. John Howe

More Lappets

John,

The Morehouse book, Yastiks, also shows lappets in Eastern Turkish yastiks numbers 135 and 140. The lappets, though, in the Eastern yastiks are less pentagonal than those in Central Turkish yastiks. Morehouse does note the lappet design in 61 is distinctive to the Nigde-Gelveri area.

Patrick Weiler