anatolian cuval face

greetings everyone,

i'm new here, and not a whiz with the computer so please forgive me if these images turn out to be difficult to view. thanks Filiberto, for doctoring the images as well as putting up with the ten minutes of downloading.

this is (presumably) an old anatolian slit-woven cuval face that i find very pleasing and lovely, even in its state of great decrepitude. the weaving was crisply and presicely executed and the colors are luminous and rich; i especially like the overdyed indigo and the yellows. it measures 160cm x 170 cm, and i suppose that it was considerably longer before being cut.

i'm not sure about all of the materials; the warps appear to be z-spun wool and goat hair while the wefts are mostly wool with some metal-wrapped (metal remaining only between the nodes) cotton threads used to outline some of the diamond shaped motifs as well as on the end borders. i suspect also that there is also some natural brown wool present in the weaving.

as to where it is from, my instincts such as they are, steer me toward the malatya-sivas region of anatolia, but really i have no idea. there are fifteen motifs that are visible on the two large bands on either side of the large central band: squares with alternating kocboynuzu and elibelinde, as i have heard this described. what interests me is that in the center of the square, it has been divided in half, and each resulting rectangle has been diagonally halved; four triangles in the center of each is the result, and this i have not come across before. as to its age, it has been suggested to me by several reputable and or knowledgeable people that its "quite old". i find it perplexing to date cuvals, and i have never seen a published example that closely resembles this one.

any ideas or comments would be greatly appreciated.

thanks for reading,

matthew

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panton metron anthropos

Which end is up?

Matthew,

Your piece looks like Malatya, but could also be Yahyali.
Which end is up?

It couldn't have been woven any earlier than 1967, due to the design in the middle panel (bottom photo shows it best) which was obviously woven by a Hippie on acid, circa mid 1960's.

You mention squares in two of the panels, but they look more like diamonds.

If it was longer, do you think that it would have been just the (usually) striped, plain-woven back that is missing?
Is there any closure system remaining?

I think it is quite a lovely piece, full of movement and color.

Patrick Weiler

greetings patrick,

the yellow does (in person) have that yahyali quality to it as do the staggered motifs in the center of photo 3.

which end is up? i didn't bother to rotate the pictures in photoshop which might have made things easier.... in the first and third photos, the warps are horizontal and the middle photo shows the piece with warps vertical.

what a relief! i was really hoping that it was not woven later than my birth year of 1970; at least its older than i am.

what i was attempting to point out is best seen in photo 2: not the three diamonds, which the weaver obivously saw while on the acid trip, but the motifs in the negative space in between them. i have seen these referred to signifying oguz clan affiliation, but i haven't a clue really. four of these are well in view in photo 2, but the one on the lower left of the middle diamond has been obliterated and crocheted shut with very thick and coarse yarn, maybe goat or horse hair. the description in my previous post still applies, and i hope this helps you find it; if not, i will send another bad image of a close-up. i should add that this general motif is very familiar to me, as it resides happily on a few of my east anatolian kilims, but not with the 'four triangles' twist. none of my 15 or so kilim books provide a direct analog, either.

i presume that it was longer because in photo 1, the end on the left is very different than the one on the right, and the blue band seems a strange way to end things. that's just my guess, though. no, there are no remnants of a closure system, no straps to indicate what it really was or is.

in the first photo, on the first blue band from the left are brocaded motifs that i usually associate with eastern anatolian cuvals, but that's about it in terms of why i have been calling it a cuval.

a friend of mine suggested that it could be a fragment of a larger two-piece kilim because as seen at the bottom of the center band of photo one, the motifs stop at the half way point. i'm glad you like this ____, i sure do too.

thanks for reading,

matthew

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panton metron anthropos

Memlings

Matthew,

When you point out the motifs described as "oguz clan affiliation",
I believe you mean the devices known as Memling Guls. There is one in each corner of the Khamseh bag shown in a different thread on this salon:



I do not readily recall any Memling Guls with your particular central design. It is a very dynamic version, with a swirling, kinetic feel.

You have 15 kilim books? I did not know that there were that many!
Kilim, The Complete Guide, shows a couple of flatweaves from the Central Asian Kazakh region with the Memling Gul, but they are not slit-weave construction. It is probably not as common in slit-weave tapestry designs due to the long, straight sections which would tend to weaken the structure. Slit-weave designs favor diagonal motifs.

I was kidding about the mid-60's age. It is more likely mid 90's. 1890's.

Patrick Weiler

hi patrick,

i have never heard of this partcular kilim motif referred to as a memling gul, although i am familiar with memling guls and do see the similarities. the small motifs i am referring to are not found in the central panel, but on the two panels on either side.

plates 71 and 72, both long malatya region kilims in _flatweaves of turkey_ by arend bandsma and robin brandt, display analogous motifs to my piece, while plate 74 and 76 display what i have always considered to be memling guls. see also marlamallett: memling gul for what i consider to be a classic flatwoven memling.

books? i collect books as well, and i suppose that some to which i referred are kilims and pile both, but i'm fairly sure that i have that many kilim books, not all of which were published in english. some, like _persian kilims_ by alastair hull are not anatolian, per se, but flatweave oriented nonetheless. if you're interested i can compile a list.

my tounge was fairly well in cheek when i said that i was relieved that it is older than i am. the acid trip inspired design reference tipped me off :-)

what makes you think late 19th. c.?

thanks for reading,
matthew]

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panton metron anthropos

a few more images

below are a few more images that are hopefully of a higher resolution.


best,
matthew

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panton metron anthropos

Eyeball?

Matthew,

The close up shots are great. I am not familiar with the design motif in your first photo. Either it is a clump of grapes, or a close up of the eyeball of a housefly.
Have you found any other weavings with this peculiar design?
And the "S" motifs inside rectangles with a tip at each end are unusual, too. The Khamseh bag I showed above has "S" motifs, but they are not inside a box. They are free floating. The Malatya kilim I showed earlier in the salon has "S" motifs also, free floating. I will try to round up some pictures.

Patrick Weiler

eyeballs

hi patrick,

glad you like the close-ups. one of my malatya kilims, a smaller piece with three large kocboynuzu motifs occupying the field contains many 'eyeball' motifs at the ends of the ram horns as well as in much of the negative space. i have heard this referred to as a flower or as a pommegranate; fly eyes are fine with me, however. i have also seen it on quite a few east anatolian pieces; a variant of it on some reyhanli sandikli kilims comes also to mind. in the third photo of the second group that i posted shows a better view of the 'memling' motif in question in the above posts. more visible are the four triangles in their centers which i was trying to point out previously. this motif (with a different design at its center) also occurrs on the malatya kilim just described, although with much less frequency.

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Memling square

Matthew,

Here is a photo of a Fachralo Kazak.



You can see that there is a motif in each corner of the green field that is quite similar to the motif in the center of your Memling guls. In this case, there are twice the number of triangles as in your weaving, but the swirling, dynamic design is the same.
This rug only lacks the Memling hooked outline to each motif.
And notice the Christmas red-and-green colors!

Patrick Weiler

lovely rug, particulary the reindeer. could it be the case that this has been misakenly identified as a prayer rug, when in fact it could be a pictoral representation of santa claus's home at the north pole, guarded by the reindeer, rather than a 'mihrab'? might this be the more likely story?

cheers,

matthew

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panton metron anthropos