Another embroidered asmalyk.

Here is another Turkmen embroidered asmalyk, in a somewhat different genre than others I have seen. It is 46 inches (117cm) wide, more-or-less typical asmalyk size. The flowers on stems are in fine silk embroidery. The embroidery is on wool cloth, probably commercial.
The red border is also wool fabric. The striped outer border is a warp-faced strip, quite finely woven. This strip is really dark blue and red, although it looks black and red here. The tassels are of cable-plied silk, similar to those seen on chirpys. Some of the tassels have small bits of cloth or yarn attached to their tips. Alternating flowers on each stem are different colored red.


The piece is backed with cotton cloth with a printed design (I don't know if this is resist dyed, block printed, what?).
The front and the back are "quilted" together by vertical lines of stitching (silk thread), and this was done before the design was embroidered--some of the embroidered design comes through to the back.
I'm sorry some of these pictures are so big. When I try to reduce them, the interference between pixels and fabric texture makes a superpsychedelic moire effect.


I'll put additional pictures on the web that you can access with these links.
http://bob.theemrys.com/asmalyk3.jpg
http://bob.theemrys.com/asmalyk5.jpg
http://bob.theemrys.com/asmalyk7.jpg
http://bob.theemrys.com/asmalyk8.jpg
http://bob.theemrys.com/asmalyk9.jpg

Tree of Life Design?

Bob and All-
Notice the simularity between the drawing of the tree of life design in this image of a chyrpy, as described by Khalter (and in further detail in The Chirpy thread of this discussion), and the design of this asmalyk. Substitute the "burrs" of the chyrpy design with palmettes and viola- the basic design of the asmalyk. It is my understanding that the chyrpy is only utilized by the Tekke so... let's not jump to any conclusion, but might these be indicators of a Tekke attribution?
- Dave

Similar Technique?

All- Here is a detail of chyrpy embroidery from Kalter





Does seem to resemble the embroidery structure of the asmylak, from this angle at any rate- Dave

David:
Thanks for your comments and images. The chirpy design has some of the closest comparisons to the asmalyk that I've seen. The detail of rendering the stems appears the same (same stitch, same drawing with alternating colors meeting at the center of the stem), and the little "trident" devices at the ends of branches appear to be identical. I think you make a good case for the asmalyk being Tekke.

Bob Emry