Luri Bach

Patrick,

Thought I had some Bachtiar rags.
Now it seems they are Luri rags.
This is the finest of them.
The chickens are doing the twist.
Think it shows some woman with Burka too.
The Lion is a bit strange. Don't know what's hanging at his tail. Don't know what's hanging from his chin. Don't know what's on his back.

It's all wool. Symmetrical knots.
Open weft structure.
2 ply twisted.
Do you think it's Luri?

Best regards,
Vincent

Microscope please

Vincent,

It is a bit difficult to tell what you have there because the photos are smaller than a postage stamp!
The iconography appears to be Luri, similar to that seen in Opie's book Tribal Rugs, plate 7.23 which shows rows of animals with "feedbags" below their noses, the guy with his arms spread wide (but with no legs) riding on top and the very same three-pronged tail he shows in plate 7.22.
Another similarity is that two Luri bags Opie shows also have "bow ties" in one row of the field, similar to those on the border of the pile section of your bag.
Opie says bags of this type have white woolen warps and red-orange wefts in the pile section.
As for whether your piece was woven in Varamin or not, the straight line between the sumak and pile section does seem to be a trait of Varamin Lur weavings, as well as white wool warps.
The creature with the three-prong tail that Opie shows is from a mid-twentieth century, 1940's bag. He says:
"Although recent weavings are usually of less interest from the aesthetic viewpoint, they can be useful in our efforts to trace the tribal and geographic origins of earlier designs. They also confirm the opinion of many writers that tribal weaving standards declined irreversibly when traditional modes of pastoral nomadism were overturned."

As for the woman with the burka, it does look like the veil with a rectangle of lace where the eyes are. I believe you have discovered the worlds first Burka Bag!!!

Patrick Weiler

Dear Vincent,

The piled panel in your bag is reminiscent of the panels in this pair of Luri Varamin piled bags.

John Collins

John,

Not only is the border on your saddlebag set interesting, but the field design looks a lot like the chanteh field design from a previous thread:



And it looks even more like the field design from one of the plates in the Tanavoli book #49, described as a Shahsavan khorjin. It even has the same design of pile weave panel at the bottom (not shown in this photo).



This khorjin also has a white-ground major border with 8-petalled Varamin flowers. Can this mean that my small chanteh is a Varamin Shahsavan? Does it mean that your korjin may be Varamin Shahsavan, too? Yours looks quite a bit more like the plate in Tanavoli.
The proximity of different weaving groups in the Varamin area has certainly raised a number of intriguing questions.

Patrick Weiler

"UUOUOUUUGHHHHH"

Dear Patrick,

Well...it didn't take ages to load.........

I've a very tiny Apple.
It passed away now. """""""""""""(These are tears)
It said something like "UUOUOUUUGHHHHH"
From now on, it's going to be much better.
I've found myself a nice new typewriter.
So next picture will be like this:
XXXXXOXXXXXHXXXXXOXXXXXXXXXOXXXXHXX
XXXXOXOXXHXXXHXXOXOXXXXXXXOXOXHXXXX
XXXOXXXHXXXXXXXHXXXOXXXXXOXXXHXXXXX
XXOXXHXXOXXXXXOXXHXXOXXXOXXHXXOXXXX
XXXHXXXOXXXXXXXOXXXHXXXXXOHXXOXXXXX
XXXXOXOXXXXXXXXXOXOXXHXXHXOXOXXXXXX
XXXXXOXXXXXXXXXXXOXXXXXHXXXOXXXXXXX
Hope this is better.
So maybe it's Luri and maybe it's not.
Think I've seen the Burka pattern in Bachtiar pieces more often.


Dear John,
But mine are the Memling kind.
Is this a Luri way of drawing this kind of pattern?
The size is ±95x80 cm.
And, I do not think these panels are only in Luri pieces.
So this doesn't help me much.

Thanks anyway,
Vincent Keers

More Details

Here are a couple of images of plate 49 from the Tanavoli book. The full image shows the panels at the bottom that look very much like those in John Collin's piece:





As you can see from the title, Tanavoli calls it Shahsavan. He says about it:
"Some of the most exquisite Varamin pile khorjins are Shahsavan work (plate 49)"

But, other than when describing a Shahsavan gelim as "...unmistakable, as they have the same bright palette and orderly design conventions as those woven by the Shahsavan of Hashtrud in Azarbaijan,..." he does not delve into specific features of the khorjin that would differentiate it from Varamin Arab or Luri work. So, we are left with issues undecided, making for future findings of interest yet to be determined.
As Mr. Tanavoli said in his preface, "...the present book cannot be expected to present a thorough and complete study. Rather, it marks the beginning of a long and arduous way."

This salon, then, is a stop along the way to discovering the depth and beauty of the Luri weaving tradition.

Patrick Weiler