May at the Textile Museum

May at the Textile Museum (From the TM Calender)
Rug & Textile Appreciation Morning: "Nomadic and Workshop Weavings from Fars Province in Iran" by Tom Cook Saturday, May 3rd 10:30 am. The audience is invited to bring clean, well-vacuumed examples related to the title of the program. Seating is limited, so please arrive early. FREE; no reservations required. Cook is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Textile Museum and is widely respected for his RTAM presentations.

Also May 31 "Have You Got the Blues? Blue Dyes in Textiles" Jeffrey Krauss and R. John Howe. (Jeff is well known for his collection of Japanese textiles especially Kasuri and R. John for his eclectic taste in Oriental rugs spanning from Turkey to Central Asia.)

Ursula McCracken memorial - 2:00 to 4:00pm, May 10th at the Textile Museum

Related topics: Oriental Rug Cleaning Austin

Turkotek and Ethnicity

A Non-verbal Linguistic Approach to Ethnicity

On Turkotek Richard Larkin raised an interesting question when he wrote: "For example, the competing claims of "Turkomans" and "Anatolians" are asserted, as though each of those groups were monolithic blocks that we fully understand, like chocolate and vanilla. But really, what do we mean in this context by "Turkomans?" What Turkomans, and when?"

What a great question. I use a different system then most people but being alone does not bother me and my system works. Language defines ethnicity. So if we want to know what group wove a type of rugs we go to the milk language of the weaver. Without getting overly complicated Kurdish weavers weave Kurdish rugs. (apologies to Michael Wendorf) and Tekke weavers wove Tekke rugs. When we want to define Turkish rugs we look to the people to narrow down the possible weaving groups. That is why I put together People of (Asian) Turkey by Language. we have 22 ethnic groups in 6 major language groups and two ethnic groups ethnically cleansed in the Massacres and deportations.

3 Afro-Asiatic languages making up less than 1% of the population.

9 Altaic languages making up 88% of the population. 88%.

2 Indo-European languages making up less than 1% of the population.

3 North Caucasian languages making up less than 1% of the population.

2 Kartvelian languages making up less than 1% of the population.

3 Kurdish languages making up 10% of the population.

Formerly about 10% of the population of Asian Turkey was Armenian and about 4% were Greek.

All appreciable quantities of Turkish rugs from Asian Turkey have to be attributed to one of these groups. There were no other significant groups.

I have proposed that Turkish be recodified as a derivative language of Turkmen. Specifically that Turkish descends from what I proposed to be called Ohguz Seljuk and that it be grouped with similar languages such as Turkmen and Northern and Southern Azeri. By the way I have also proposed that Northern and Southern Azerbaijani be renamed Northern and Southern Azeri. Supposedly this is going to be published this year but I am not holding my breath Still I hope to see it out soon. I am basing my conclusions on what I call Non-verbal linguistics. Only now are we seeing that language is more than sounds with meaning. I propose that structure and pattern contain a non-verbal element of language. For instance for us to know that a Kurdish rug is Kurdish by looking at the structure and pattern then the weaver has woven in a way that indicates the language of the weaver. Therefor the weaving is a form of non-verbal language. More later, it is a work night.

Comments on Steve Price on Turkotek

I am getting a kick out of the discussion in Hajji Baba 75th Anniversary. by Patrick Weiler > Central Asian fragment. They picked up on a story I told below on how Harold Keshishian acquired the fragment in question and Ulrich Schurmann acquired another section of the same carpet. Well they got going and they almost had me believing the pieces were from two different carpets. Then Steve Price began comparing elems from opposing ends of the same carpet and I realized what he was getting at. In one case in particular I would not have thought that the two ends were from different rugs. I know some people feel it is a sign of their own erudition to knock Turkotek but at times it is a crackling good read and Steve Price is a big part of it.
I had a chance to drive Harold up to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore Sunday morning and we discussed the fragment that he bought from Asadorian's. Harold insisted that his piece and Schurmann's were from the same carpet. I asked Harold about the two other fragments from the same carpet. Since there was no attractive way to attach the two to the fragment in the show Harold ended up attaching the two together and he gave the joined piece to McCoy Jones. I wonder if they are published?
I also see that Jim Allen noticed that I was talking about him and added the Azerbaijan carpet, South Caucasus/Northwest Persia Circa 1800 Sotheby's lot 22 into his thread on his yellow ground carpet. Jim has a different way of thinking and processing data than most people. Rather than a linear process Jim's process of discovery tends to take an iterative approach. Early in the process he will float an idea and then he writes it up, then later he revises it. His work gets stronger and stronger as the idea matures. It is good to see Jim on Turkotek since it gives him a forum to work out his ideas.

"Worm Dangling from the mouth of a bird"

"Worm Dangling from the mouth of a bird"
The New York Hajji Baba are having a 75th anniversary exhibition called "Timbuktu To Tibet," at the New York Historical Society. The gang at Turkotek is having a salon on the show and Dr. James Blanchard the rug collector from Bangalore India posted praise of a piece catalogued as "Turkmen Fragment, Central Asia, 18th or 19th Century (Harold Keshishian)". It quickly generated 8 replies and when I mentioned it to Harold he told me the rest of the story. In the late 70s Harold was visiting one of the younger Asadourian brothers (Hagop or Krikor’s son) shop at 276 5th Ave in New York City. In a 4 foot high pile of fragments Harold found this and two other fragments of a very old very worn Turkmen Main Carpet. Try as he might Harold could not find the other half of his elim. So when he left who should Harold run in to but the great German Rug Scholar and friend Dr. Ulrich Schurmann. Harold", Schurmann said, "What is that in your hand". After seeing Harold's find Schurmann returned to the shop and did not leave until he located the other half of the elim which is published in Werner Loges, Turkmen Tribal Rugs, plate 48, 1980.

At a later date Schurmann was visiting with Harold at his Washington DC place when they had a chance to look at this piece again. Starting early in the morning with a stack of rugs and a fifth of vodka Schurmann began his studies. A few hours into the process Dr. Ulrich Schurmann declared with all possible Teutonic authoritative certainty that these designs were of "worm dangling from the mouth of a bird". Harold has admitted to me that he has never been able to make out either the birds or the worms and he has no intention of imbibing enough vodka to make it possible.

This piece is one piece and the borders as they were in the carpet. It is about half of an elim of a Drynak Gul carpet that was about 8 foot across.

People of (Asian) Turkey by Language

Rugs are a product of people. So if we wish to understand who wove the rug we need to understand the people. I have pulled together a list of what people live in the Asian portion of Turkey. People of (Asian) Turkey by Language. I will make it a point to annotate the list with when these groups entered Turkey and what happened to other groups that lived there but are no longer present. For instance there are Northern Caucasian people who arrived in the late 18th and 19th century and there are Armenians who died or were driven out in the late 19th and early 20th century. I only focused on the Asian part of Turkey since it is the primary weaving area.

Tea and Carpets; Drawing Oriental Carpet Designs Is An Artform Of Its Own

New on Tea and Carpets; Drawing Oriental Carpet Designs Is An Artform Of Its Own. Nice article, often in the west we pay no attention to the role of the designer. I was struck with the emphasis in Iran on the design and the complexity of the design. The more unique a design is and the less repeat the more valuable the rug is.

Turkish Rugs: How do we date Early Karapinar Carpets?

Karapinar Tulip Rug from the Philadelphia Museum of Art

How do we date Early Karapinar Carpets?
Not long ago Wendel Swan sent me a picture of the Textile Museum Karapinar tulip long rug. It is a magnificent rug and a very early example of the type but the Textile Museum has it listed as 19th century. How then can the Textile Museum date this rug so late? I think I have it figured out. I don't agree but now I think I understand the rational.

Mae Beattie identified a group of unusual Kilims that she dated to the 17th century. I believe that Court Kilim from the Ulu Mosque in Divrigi is an example of that group. So if Charlie Ellis accepted Mae Beattie's attribution of 17th century and I am sure he would because I think he helped her with it, then you can understand how he dated the Karapinar Tulip Rug from the Philadelphia Museum of Art to the 18th to 19th century. So if Karapinar Tulip Rug from the Philadelphia Museum of Art is 18th to 19th century then you can understand how Ellis who had a great deal of input on such thing at the Textile Museum would date the Textile Museum Karapinar tulip long rug to the 19th century.

The problem is that a number of rugs are plausibly date dated much earlier such as to Turkish Rugs: Karapinar Long Rug C. 1600 and Turkish Rugs: Karapinar Long Rug from the Vakiflar Museum Circa 1600 - 1700. My thought is that the Ottoman took Egypt in 1517 so why not date the Court Kilim from the Ulu Mosque in Divrigi to circa 1500. After all it is made in the Egyptian manner. So if we date that one to 1500 then we can quiet plausibly date Turkish Rugs: Karapinar Long Rug C. 1600, Turkish Rugs: Karapinar Long Rug from the Vakiflar Museum Circa 1600 - 1700, Textile Museum Karapinar tulip long rug, Turkish Rugs: Karapinar Long Rug Fragment from the Wolf Collection, and Karapinar Yellow Ground Tulip Rug from Berdj Achdjian to circa 1600 and into the 17th century. So where do we put the Karapinar Tulip Rug from the Philadelphia Museum of Art? How about mid 16th century?