Kurdish Bijar Rug Mid 20th Century

Kurdish Bijar Rug Mid 20th

A Kurdish Bijar from the mid 20th century from Herat Oriental by Barry O'Connell of www.OrientalRugTalk.com.
See my guide to Bijar Rugs: http://www.spongobongo.com/bidjarag.htm 

Was Mellaart really Sir James Mellaart?

James Mellaart is often referred to as Sir James Mellaart. I decided who would know better than the British Academy. here is Melaart's record at the academy.  They use "Mr" to describe him.

James Mellaart at Catalhuyuk

British Academy Fellows

Record for: MELLAART, Mr James

Post: Formerly Lecturer in Anatolian Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology, London

Specialisms: Archaeology

Appointments:
Lecturer in Anatolian Archaeology Institute of Archaeology (1964-1991)

Principal publications:
The Calcolithic and early Bronze Ages in the Near East and Anatolia, 1966
Çatal Hüyük, a neolithic town in Anatolia, 1967
The neolithic of the Near East, 1975
Earliest civilizations of the Near East, 1965

Elected to the Fellowship: 1980 § 10

I was thinking about Mellaart when I saw this image. Because of the Mellaart fraud large numbers of othewise reasonable people became enchanted with the so-called Mother Goddess worship.

Why Paint a Rug - Painted Sarouk Rugs

Why Paint a Rug - Painted Sarouk Rugs

In rugs for the decorative market color is everything. So what do you do if a rug is the wrong color. With Sarouk rugs they dyed them to a more saleable color. In the picture below the Painted Sarouk rug had an orange red field but was dyed to the blue/red in the image. Why? Because American homes predominantly used dark mahogany furniture and this was the color that went best with it.

Don't forget to read American Sarouk - Painted Beauty by Lynn Tall

1920's Sarouk Carpet

Sarouk is the name of a village but it also has become the name of a grade of rug from that area. Trade names for the rugs of the Sarouk region include: Feraghan, Feraghan Sarouk, Mahal, Mohajaran Sarouk, Mushkabad (now called Mahal) and Viss/Golpayegan Rugs . On this page I am focusing on the American Sarouk. Sarouk Carpet early 20th century Skinner's Lot 301 Blue Field Sarouk Carpet Schuster Sarough Rug c. 1935 Lot: 32 Sarouk Carpet Skinner's Lot 10 1920's Sarouk Carpet

Price Turkotek and the Mystery of the Tappet

Andrew Krawiec who I do not know posted:

Hi Rich and Phil, Here is one from the Spongobongo site at (Link to a page containing advertising deleted. Steve Price) which has the Saloresque guls of pretty much the same design as one of Phil's. But it also has those Barmak borders enclosing the end panels. JBOC has a curious comment below the image, 'JBOC Notes: I have a thought that I am working on that the use of a Tappet guard border is an indication of a Persian origin.'. Does anyone know what he means by 'Tappet' and did he ever explore the idea that they indicate Persian origin further to anyone's knowledge? It was listed for auction as Tekke around 1900. Andy

Steve Price replied that “I have no idea what tappets are within the context of rug motifs.“ 

I am not really surprised. I got that from the late Charles Grant Ellis. CharlieEllis was the great Oriental Rug Expert of the 2^nd half of the 20^th century. Charlie used Tappet in the footnotes of one of his books. In Ellis’ work the text was pretty good but all the real meat was in the footnotes.

So tappet is just another term for the Barmak border. It is an old fashioned and fairly obscure expression but it was many years ago that I wrote that and it was what I was thinking at the time. Think of each finger of the Barmak as a tappet.

A tappet is the 5 sided or peaked element that is used like a row of tiny yurts to frame the field and as an inner guard border and so on. If you didn’t pay attention to Charlie Ellis’ footnotes you probably would not know that.  

As for barmak border indicating a Persian origin. I still have a suspicion that barmak is used frequently in Iranian Yomud weaving but it is not enough to be a useful attribution marker. 

Chuck Wagner's Bag on Turkotek

Chuck Wagner is one of the more interesting collectors on Turkotek. He recently posted this bag on Turkotek (http://www.turkotek.com/VB37/showthread.php?t=1382&page=2) and called it Baluch citing the  Koneiczny book.

Chuck may well be right but I noticed a little something about the tassels. If the bag is Baluch the tassels by implication are also Baluch work. They are extremely similar to the tassels on this Mashwanni Bridal Mafrash

There are people called Mashwanni  who weave the black Afghan rugs and bags. perhaps they are Baluch. I have never clear about exactly who those people are. But Mashwanni  were written about in the Baburnama which dates to the very early 16th century.

Antique serapi Heriz Rug Persian Carpet

Antique Serapi Heriz Rug Persian Carpet

Antique Serapi Heriz Rug 7.5 by 17.5 feet Persian Carpet from www.HeratOrientalRugs.com warehouse Alexandria Va

Styles for Oriental Rugs & Carpets

The Wide Array of Styles for Oriental Rugs & Carpets

Published by contact@nazmiyal.com at 12:42 am under Educational Articles About Rugs

Oriental Rugs

How diverse is the world of Oriental rugs? Well there are literally hundreds of different styles, each with their own characteristic. The world of Oriental rugs is much larger than most assume. If you consider that people have been weaving rugs as far back as the ancient Egyptians, then you can start to comprehend how diverse the styles have evolved over the last three thousand or so years. Also, note that evidence of ancient rug weaving has been found on every major continent.

Although this array of styles has many similarities, let’s take a look at a few things that make them unique from each other. If we simply examine the wide variety of styles that have been created from two of the major rug producing regions, Persian and India, then I am sure you will get a feel of the diversity.

Oriental Rugs

The commonly accepted center of the rug universe is Persia, or modern-day Iran. Their styles represent the best features of almost every possible characteristic. From excellent construction to intricately beautiful designs. Dozens of styles have been born in this region. A few of the most notable are: Tabriz, Kerman, Sultanabad, Kashan, Kurdish, Lori, Bidjar, Baluch, Esfahan, Gabbeh, Hamedan, Bakshaish, Khorassan, Shahsavan, Afshar, Mahal, Senneh, Quashki, Farahan and Malayer to name a few.
Antique hand-made rugs from India are most notably known for their vibrant colors. The Indians produced some of the best natural color dyes from the wide selection of flora that was available to them. Many rug styles from India can also be recognized by the frequent use of animals and outdoor scenes. Some of the styles that emerged from here are called: Agra, Ottoman Embroidery, Millefleurs, Mughal, Indian Shall and Amritsar.  
A s we can see, the rug styles that Persia has produced alone can fill a book. From symmetrical designs to abstract, vivid to subdued, geometric to floral, pictoral to decorative these rugs are truly an art form produced by skilled artisans. Some of the many   styles I have seen are:  Alcaraz ,  Art Nouveau , Art Deco , Vintage Rugs ,  Aubusson ,  Axminster ,  Azerbaijan,   Bakshaish ,  Bessarabian , Bezalel , Chinese ,  Heriz , Serapi ,  Kh otan , Mongolian ,   Moroccan ,  Oushak , Peking , Polonaise ,  Sarouk , Savonnerie , Senneh , Serapi , Caucasian Rugs ,  Sivas , Spanish , Sultanabad ,  Tabriz ,  Tibetan  And   Turkish Rugs .