Hi Kurt, et al,
That's a sensational
torba in my book, condition notwithstanding. Six colors go a long way in
it. The following example isn't quite in the same league, but not too bad
anyway.
I've posted it to make the
point that this general gul scheme seems to appear in a number of weave
types. To my eye, Paul's outstanding rug in weave and palette falls within
a familiar group generally considered to be Ersari. Kurt's piece and the
one I've posted above can be viewed as closer cousins, from the same
standpoint. The warps in mine are also hair, though of a lighter hue than
his mixed light and dark. The other structural particulars are consistent
as well. In parts of the one I've posted, the wefts alternate colors
between rows, as indicated below:
I have posted this torba in the
past, primarily to seek comments on a phenomenon I thought unusual, though
it didn't engender much comment at the time. It is that the pile yarn in
the red field is in at least three, arguably four distinct shades of red.
They appear to have been intentionally selected by the weaver to give a
horizontally striped character to the field. It can be seen most clearly
in the diagonal stripe of red lying between the stepped outlines of the
two guls in the second image, above, though the usage is consistent
throughout the weaving. It seems to me to go beyond ordinary abrash on
account of the consistent variation from row to row.
Besides the
colors shown, there is also sparing use of what appears to be silk in a
very corrosive lilac shade. Counting that, and calling the red four
different shades (they're quite distinct), the torba has eleven different
colors; yet, from any distance, it seems to me less multi-colored than
Kurt's piece with six colors.
Anyway, the larger point is that
there appears to be a variety of weaving sources (presumably, in addition
to the Chaudor) that were prone to implement this gul with the repeating
rosettes (?) within the ertmen frame; as well as the ertmen model itself.
We can guess that they flowed down in the waves referred to in Pierre's
summary. The question is whether the surviving products will ever be
matched up successfully with the actual weaving groups.
Rich
Larkin