tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78044371956792323102024-03-16T11:53:08.500-07:00TEA AND CARPETSTalk, news and links about oriental carpets, carpet collecting and the wonderful world of east meets westTea and Carpetshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06607321259227169325noreply@blogger.comBlogger104125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804437195679232310.post-12411159583464117782013-04-06T00:09:00.000-07:002013-04-07T02:26:38.157-07:00The Alhambra And The Oasis Of Luxury That Was Moorish Spain<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSkEePlQknSkchAjd5uVoirjo8-RlGUyxcR60cXL9KGtnKfCn7DYchiATwg2d9YsCt8aFGIssVKkPiowe2U_bGHvYLN_4v0pbfcQFkLfzKKogyiWejhdmVw1m-o74ScDs_R960EO7cEGU/s1600/granada_alhambra09.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSkEePlQknSkchAjd5uVoirjo8-RlGUyxcR60cXL9KGtnKfCn7DYchiATwg2d9YsCt8aFGIssVKkPiowe2U_bGHvYLN_4v0pbfcQFkLfzKKogyiWejhdmVw1m-o74ScDs_R960EO7cEGU/s320/granada_alhambra09.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Interior of the Alhambra, Patio of the Lions</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
GRANADA, April 6, 2013 - What did the height of luxury in Europe look like in the year Colombus sailed to America?<br />
<br />
It looked like the Alhambra, the last palace of a Moorish ruler in Spain.<br />
<br />
Even today, the Alhambra takes visitors' breath away. It is an oasis of light and shadow, of white arches and honeycomb ceilings, of cool marble columns multiplied in reflection pools, and flowers and trees overflowing garden walls.<br />
<br />
Imagine its sitting rooms strewn with rich carpets and pillows and it becomes everything its most famous admirer, Washington Irving, wrote in his 1829 book Tales of the Alhambra:<br />
<br />
<i>"The abode of beauty is here as if it had been inhabited but yesterday."</i><br />
<br />
If the Alhambra is an abode of beauty, it is not by accident. The palace was the product of a culture of luxury in Andalusia that lasted from the Arab-led Moorish conquest of the Spanish peninsula in 710 to the final surrender of the Alhambra to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in 1492.<br />
<br />
Right from the beginning, the court culture of Moorish Spain sought to imitate and even surpass those of Damascus, Cairo, and Baghdad. The reason was in the origins of Moorish Spain itself. <br />
<br />
Unlike many territories the Arabs conquered when the swept out of the Arabian peninsula in the seventh century, Spain at the time offered no opulent prize cities. Its previous prosperity as part of the Roman Empire had been destroyed in the barbarian invasions that brought down Rome itself and its comforts had sunk to the level of those elsewhere in medieval Europe.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBFIxZUOy253NDHlqwJqa7PL6lt_c0CN8fIhI8VVt5iD2xSbYabp0I7tikXNulG78ojc6wNuoeCyYH2ZoT5z2mlb3VTnW1UuY0423oBWCxlnhyvixwvC5ueQSGeI12V5AANA6gb4yfCEg/s1600/Story+of+Bayad+and+Riyad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBFIxZUOy253NDHlqwJqa7PL6lt_c0CN8fIhI8VVt5iD2xSbYabp0I7tikXNulG78ojc6wNuoeCyYH2ZoT5z2mlb3VTnW1UuY0423oBWCxlnhyvixwvC5ueQSGeI12V5AANA6gb4yfCEg/s320/Story+of+Bayad+and+Riyad.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Muslims in Iberia, from Tale of Bayad and Riyad </td></tr>
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So, when Arab generals led a horde of Berber tribesmen from North Africa
across the straits of Gibraltar in 710, the challenge was to build a
new civilization rather than merely adapt a pre-existing one to their
tastes. <br />
<br />
Their building efforts got a further impetus in 750 when the Umayyad
caliphate that ruled the Islamic world from Damascus was overthrown by
rivals who would found the Abbasid dynasty. As the usurpers established
their new capital in Baghdad, a survivor of the Umayyad family fled to
Moorish Spain to establish his own caliphate and vowed to outshine them.<br />
<br />
By the tenth century, Moorish Spain had become one of the brightest
stars of the Islamic world. Its capital, Cordoba, had over 300 mosques
and innumerable palaces and public buildings, rivaling the splendors of
Constantinople, Damascus, and Baghdad.<br />
<br />
It also had one of the largest libraries in the world, with at least 400,000 volumes, and was a center for translating ancient Greek texts into Arabic, Latin, and Hebrew. Those same translations would later help spark Europe's renaissance by re-connecting it to its lost classical heritage. <br />
<br />
At the same time, the great cities of Moorish Spain were comfortable. Cordoba was the first city in Europe to use kerosene lanterns to light its main streets at night. Many streets were paved. And rulers were not only patrons of the arts but led a courtly life with distinctly hedonistic tones.<br />
<br />
One 11th century poet in Seville, Ibn Hamidis, writes of a drinking party where goblets of wine were floated along a stream to the guests who lounged along the bank:<br />
<br />
<i>"It is as it we were cities along the riverbank while the wine-laden ships sailed the water between us,</i><br />
<i>For life is excusable only when we walk along the shores of pleasure and abandon all restraint."</i><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX-68a7gRDhCT5qYeVeHZ5wucTdZ7FcBMKRXHV1cqorLSjxMkqZwbbzQRHAn4qL845Oacc-j639f7Sc5-RfI8XOxPA6jPGUGi_O-qxw33wYbp3xEQeQAMMx08eSYnu1POfq3ncLna5ozk/s1600/Almoravid_Empire.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX-68a7gRDhCT5qYeVeHZ5wucTdZ7FcBMKRXHV1cqorLSjxMkqZwbbzQRHAn4qL845Oacc-j639f7Sc5-RfI8XOxPA6jPGUGi_O-qxw33wYbp3xEQeQAMMx08eSYnu1POfq3ncLna5ozk/s320/Almoravid_Empire.png" width="194" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Almoravid Empire, 11th Century</td></tr>
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Moorish Spain was wealthy because it was the European extension of a trade route that stretched from southern Morocco to the Niger valley near Timbuktu. Along it flowed camel trains bringing gold and free labor in the form of slaves -- enough of both to build magnificent cities. <br />
<br />
The Moors introduced new crops into the Spanish peninsula, including rice, sugar-cane, cotton, oranges, lemons, limes, bananas, pomegranates, spinach, artichokes, and figs. <br />
<br />
These exotic foodstuffs became part of Moorish Spain's profitable export trade, which also included luxury goods like ceramics, glass, and beautifully wrought leather and wood boxes.<br />
<br />
In his 1992 book Moorish Spain, historian Richard Fletcher observes that the prosperity of Moorish Spain at its height can be gauged by the existence of a famed workshop for ivory carving in Cuenca during the middle years of the 11th century. He notes the ivory could only have come from as far away as East Africa or India, evidence of how far-reaching were the trade networks of the time.<br />
<br />
But despite all these signs of prosperity, Moorish Spain was a fragile and tumultuous place.<br />
<br />
That is partly because its was caught between two great forces. To the north were Christian states which grew more powerful with time. To the south were the Berber tribes from which Moors sprang and which eyed the riches of Andalusia enviously. <br />
<br />
Yet the main reason the Moorish states were so weak was not just the strength of their neighbors but also their own constant infighting and calling in of outside forces to help fight their rivals. <br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_J3HuXMZhTvt2yPtkdVoRm5heBZEfppe7Q7_yFbO-HUkbelg_eW0EMkfRyByc2IwAHTNh8mS362LIa3NOmx5P1_xE1SInAv05XHfcTNHXQYRQynf1vKXeqD_fsiMB-5L0pqj1aOb_AAI/s1600/CHESS+PLAYERS+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_J3HuXMZhTvt2yPtkdVoRm5heBZEfppe7Q7_yFbO-HUkbelg_eW0EMkfRyByc2IwAHTNh8mS362LIa3NOmx5P1_xE1SInAv05XHfcTNHXQYRQynf1vKXeqD_fsiMB-5L0pqj1aOb_AAI/s320/CHESS+PLAYERS+1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Christian and Moor, Book of Games of Alfonso X, 1285</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
By 11th century, Moorish rulers were so regularly calling upon the Christian states of northern Spain to intervene that the most powerful Christian kingdoms like Castille and Aragon were in a position to demand tribute in exchange for protection.<br />
<br />
Abd Allah, the ruler of Granada, has left this description of his negotiations of protection payments with King Alfonso VI of Leon-Castlle in 1075:<br />
<br />
"Alfonso accepted my plea after much effort on my part and I finally agreed to pay him 25,000 (gold) pieces, half the amount he had demanded. Then, as presents for him, I got together a large number of carpets, garments, and vessels and placed all these things in a large tent. I then invited him to the tent. But when he saw the presents he said they were not enough. So it was agreed that I should increase the amount by 5,000 (gold) pieces, bringing it to a total of 30,000."<br />
<br />
At the same time, Spanish and French kings were engaging in Christendom's first crusades to constantly push the borders of Moorish Spain southwards. Their crusades -- like the better known later crusades to Jerusalem -- were motivated both by religion and the chance to plunder or conquer the richer Islamic lands.<br />
<br />
The danger from the south was no less. To relieve the pressure of the Christian states, Moorish Spain's beleaguered rulers called for help from fellow Moors in North Africa. But they often found themselves overthrown by their own Muslim allies.<br />
<br />
This happened most famously at the end of the 11th century when the
Almoravid empire, founded by a school of fundamentalist ascetics in
North Africa, came to Moorish Spain to help, were appalled by its
liberalism, and stayed to rule. They in turn were displaced by an even
more fundamentalist group of aesthetics recruiting followers among the
wild Berber tribes of southern Morocco, the founders of the Almohad
empire. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyIs4663GZO2ZyF5NGxpTTNJVgeG17ZAMjS4ilZkmQQcCjn3m1TojlLxTUB4nfqPuVjsNi0dUGJ1Cm0703oGBSWLICu7yS8117C2MEjYNGYu7bLB_adMW1fbSzbzdFwOEG27r_FjqJQrY/s1600/Book+of+chess.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyIs4663GZO2ZyF5NGxpTTNJVgeG17ZAMjS4ilZkmQQcCjn3m1TojlLxTUB4nfqPuVjsNi0dUGJ1Cm0703oGBSWLICu7yS8117C2MEjYNGYu7bLB_adMW1fbSzbzdFwOEG27r_FjqJQrY/s320/Book+of+chess.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Moors playing chess, Book of Games of Alfonso X, 1285</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Writing in 1377, the Tunisian historian Ibn Khaldun sought to explain
the rapid rising and falling of Islamic empires in Moorish Spain in
terms of a larger political theory. <br />
<br />
In his book the
Muqaddimah, he observed that Islam's great empires were always carved
out by barbarian tribes of conquerors tightly knit by religious
conviction. Yet after their conquests created a great civilization,
their sense of purpose was sapped by luxuries and rivalries, and they in
turn became prey to a new tightly knit horde of barbaric invaders. <br />
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<br />
The influx of new Muslim conquerors from North Africa pushed back the Christian states for a while. But when these new empires, too, decayed, it proved to be only a temporary reprieve. By the 1400's, steady pressure from the north had pushed Muslim rule out of all but a slice of coastal southern Spain. <br />
<br />
The most famous of the remaining principalities was the emirate of Grenada, the home of the Alhambra, which would become the last Muslim state to fall in 1492.<br />
<br />
How did Granada hold out so long?<br />
<br />
Much of the reason can still be seen today. The emirate was mountainous and extraordinarily well fortified, with a chain of castles built on the average just five or six miles apart along the northern and western frontiers. It also had enormous numbers of watchtowers all over its territory to serve as redoubts -- as many as 14,000 according to one contemporary historian, Ibn Khatib.<br />
<br />
The Alhambra was a vast fortress itself, but with an inner world of
refined luxury. When tourists visit it today, they go directly to those
parts of the castle no visitor in the 1400s would see, the dwelling
place of the royal family. But the complex also contained a military
garrison, stables and workshops. <br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj835LR1PakcgZULrtHZFHT0QT1e8LAq3xUCnaAkHJeeTxjkfuvDFvHi0uwJqmVYMjAJ8_-ICuiCdrWxlViaIubMJLpaglHkiS5d3sd-vM-Rl9fOeFh5788v2BbC5pzt1FMqmhYYGq5SyI/s1600/granada_alhambra01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj835LR1PakcgZULrtHZFHT0QT1e8LAq3xUCnaAkHJeeTxjkfuvDFvHi0uwJqmVYMjAJ8_-ICuiCdrWxlViaIubMJLpaglHkiS5d3sd-vM-Rl9fOeFh5788v2BbC5pzt1FMqmhYYGq5SyI/s320/granada_alhambra01.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Alhambra fortress and palace complex</td></tr>
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It was only after an eight month siege that the troops of the combined kingdoms of Aragon and Castille finally took Granada on January 1, 1492.<br />
<br />
On the following morning King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella received the keys to Granada from the new puppet ruler they had just installed. <br />
<br />
As Fletcher notes, it was a dramatic moment:<br />
<br />
"Curiously enough, (Ferdinand and Isabella) had chosen to dress themselves in Moorish costume for the ceremony. Among those who witnessed it was Christopher Colombus, who was in attendance upon the court in his quest for royal sponsorship of his projected voyage of discovery into the Atlantic."<br />
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That day marked the end of Muslim rule in Spain. A new era was beginning in which Europe would become rich through its mastery of the sea and Moorish Spain would be but a memory. <br />
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#<br />
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<a href="http://tea-and-carpets.blogspot.cz/">RETURN TO HOME</a><br />
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# Tea and Carpetshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06607321259227169325noreply@blogger.com139tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804437195679232310.post-83007485202794167322013-03-24T14:31:00.002-07:002013-03-31T03:39:00.460-07:00Spanish Rugs: When Spain Was Part Of The Islamic World<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihHIa4AwMVCpbQAqO0OG0I7G5RqTgsuPzS6gS0pewSQUVvIPrP3Iy7-OdbDzYdvTftRiqsrMGFJO7A12tYtLvqD9_1xayhwkALVr-THOEf8na51-pOG1dB6jVFYqY6hEGkAO71QelvfNA/s1600/spain-carpet-c1425-granger.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihHIa4AwMVCpbQAqO0OG0I7G5RqTgsuPzS6gS0pewSQUVvIPrP3Iy7-OdbDzYdvTftRiqsrMGFJO7A12tYtLvqD9_1xayhwkALVr-THOEf8na51-pOG1dB6jVFYqY6hEGkAO71QelvfNA/s320/spain-carpet-c1425-granger.jpg" width="190" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">15th century Spanish"Admiral carpet </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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CORDOBA, March 25, 2013 -- Among the first oriental rugs to reach Europe were carpets woven in Europe itself.<br />
<br />
Those rugs came from Moorish Spain, an extension of the Islamic world that once reached the Pyrenees and brought medieval Western Europe into direct contact with eastern art and culture.<br />
<br />
From the first Arab-led invasion Moorish invasion in 710 to the defeat of the last Muslim kingdom in 1492, the Islamic presence in Spain spanned nearly 800 years.<br />
<br />
During that time, the expanse of Muslim holdings rose and fell in contests with Christian powers, but major weaving carpet weaving centuries flourished for centuries in cities including Seville, Granada, Almeria, Malaga, and in the province of Murcia.<br />
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The carpets they produced furnished the luxurious palaces of the Moorish Spain but also were exported to other parts of the Muslim world and northward to Europe, where they were highly prized.<br />
<br />
Often the carpets moved first to the Christian Spanish kingdoms in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. There they became part of Christian court life and moved further north to the castles of France, Italy, Britain and beyond.<br />
<br />
Just when the Spanish carpet trade began is uncertain. But as early as the 13th century, when Spain’s rug industry was fully developed, writers were already speaking of it as long established.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7uBrK_cfIqQWb_-1fWpS_XY-C1iSmNE9zjNlv0oNnUjgIO41LWXUzkpr_jNxci57MZLjXVgwVZgwOmcirFgHFk2FSd5H94LuE8mm5g7zZjRIX_Zhzh_yRpatF1SoLJyy_l6vmZ590lFI/s1600/Map+al-Andalus+750.+Wikimedia+Maps+of+Spain_2010210153157_small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7uBrK_cfIqQWb_-1fWpS_XY-C1iSmNE9zjNlv0oNnUjgIO41LWXUzkpr_jNxci57MZLjXVgwVZgwOmcirFgHFk2FSd5H94LuE8mm5g7zZjRIX_Zhzh_yRpatF1SoLJyy_l6vmZ590lFI/s1600/Map+al-Andalus+750.+Wikimedia+Maps+of+Spain_2010210153157_small.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spain under Umayyad califate in 8th century</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
A poet named al-Shakundi, writing in Cordoba, long the capital of Moorish Spain, notes that rugs made in Murcia, were already being exported to foreign countries a full century earlier.<br />
<br />
When Eleanor of Castile, the wife of Prince Edward of England, arrived in London in 1255, chroniclers noted that rugs, presumably from Murcia, were ceremoniously displayed in the streets and at her lodgings at Westminster.<br />
<br />
And even today, in the Palace of the Popes in Avignon, one can see a fresco from the first half of the fourteenth century that almost certainly depicts a Spanish carpet.<br />
<br />
Who wove the Spanish carpets and what did they look like?<br />
<br />
The weavers are generally believed to have been Moors, the Berber population of North Africa, and were part of a skilled artisan class in direct contact with contemporaries in other parts of the Islamic world.<br />
<br />
The weavers were both aware of, and much influenced by, trends in the other great Islamic art centers of the time, including Cairo, Damascus, and Baghdad, and catered to a courtly culture that was largely the same across the Islamic world.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYx6lDQ3gGuMe-Tod1xV_Nl3fml3cXJCaUrd27hyphenhyphenQd_F0ypJ70j7cDMNBC400colBmcnb0DjuSKnou5vGeki52z4mt1tXwm39tKxoVlfz-V8Ulq34SkXtrnN5_qqFHIftdUjDBbbw2UhQ/s1600/site_0313_0001-464-0-20090929160107.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYx6lDQ3gGuMe-Tod1xV_Nl3fml3cXJCaUrd27hyphenhyphenQd_F0ypJ70j7cDMNBC400colBmcnb0DjuSKnou5vGeki52z4mt1tXwm39tKxoVlfz-V8Ulq34SkXtrnN5_qqFHIftdUjDBbbw2UhQ/s320/site_0313_0001-464-0-20090929160107.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
The emphasis was on luxury and classical elegance but also novelty and designs were freely exchanged between the fields of architecture, book illumination, and textile production as artistic trends came and went.<br />
<br />
Here is a photo of the interior of the famous mosque in Cordoba, whose construction began around 784 to 786. <br />
<br />
Not surprisingly, earlier Spanish carpets or carpet fragments show the geometric forms associated with early Muslim art.<br />
<br />
They include six- and eight-pointed starts, circles, triangles and cartouches and, often, borders with religious inscriptions in highly stylized and geometric Kufic script.<br />
<br />
But in the fifteenth century, Spanish rugs changed dramatically.<br />
<br />
By that time, the powerful kingdoms of northern Spain had pushed far to the south in their centuries-long effort to evict the Moors from the peninsula.<br />
<br />
The important rug weaving center of Murcia fell into Christian hands and the Moorish weavers who stayed worked for European masters interested only in the European market.<br />
<br />
The change created one of the most distinctive features of Renaissance-era Spanish rugs: their odd proportions. They are usually very long in proportion to their width, suggesting they were deliberately woven for the long, vaulted halls of churches, monasteries, and castles.<br />
<br />
One thing European noble families desired most was carpets that could serve as highly personalized status symbols. Specifically, they wanted carpets that displayed their own family coat of arms in center field, in the place where a medallion usually might be.<br />
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The Spanish rug industry responded to the demand by producing “armorial carpets,” a curious hybrid product that was both Western and Eastern at once.<br />
<br />
Mildred Jackson O’Brien describes armorial carpets nicely in her 1946 work, “The Rug and Carpet Book:”<br />
<br />
<i>“Fifteenth century rugs show western heraldic emblems and coats of arms curiously combined with Oriental decoration. Birds and animals begin to appear, floral forms, and a more rhythmic flow of line. This is probably the greatest period of Spanish rug weaving. Often there are many elaborate borders and the field is divided into diamond-shaped panels or covered with large wreaths or circles. The influence of Italian Renaissance silk and damask patterns with their pomegranates, acanthus leaves and ogee panels is apparent.” </i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjfA5cGYHD9rFUGOxcexHU4nSdrx2fRcvSIQKFwVh7S0uMMUjOCfvd4ZzRuP7oRqO_pAphG2y8vP4wBfBgxqu2c-cii8Bts23JS6HyXiyHQgEDIf2KX11cXOlA9qTmHfQKwvFgtzoWEOs/s1600/detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjfA5cGYHD9rFUGOxcexHU4nSdrx2fRcvSIQKFwVh7S0uMMUjOCfvd4ZzRuP7oRqO_pAphG2y8vP4wBfBgxqu2c-cii8Bts23JS6HyXiyHQgEDIf2KX11cXOlA9qTmHfQKwvFgtzoWEOs/s320/detail.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Interestingly, the angular stylized birds and animals that appear in the Spanish carpets of this time recall similar figures in early Anatolian rugs.<br />
<br />
Another rug expert, M. S. Dimand, a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, notes that Anatolian animal rugs were clearly well known in Spain, as evidenced by the fact they appear in several paintings from the mid-fifteenth century.<br />
<br />
He notes that among the Muslim element in some of the armorial rugs is “an inner border with a lozenge diaper containing a swastika – a motif that may be found in Anatolian rugs of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.”<br />
<br />
Such eastern elements often competed for space in the border with bears, boars or wild men in a tree landscape that were clearly elements of European inspiration.<br />
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Among the oldest surviving rugs of this kind are the "Admiral carpets," so-called because their fields are overlaid with the coats-of-arms of the fifteenth-century admirals of Spain.<br />
<br />
But there are indications the practice of commissioning carpets bearing owners' blazons originated still earlier, with some inventories mentioning such rugs even in the fourteenth century.<br />
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The Admiral carpets are surrounded by three to seven borders and on some carpets the human figures even include women in low-cut European-style dress. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWxNeFL0pIgvXsgkET-Qnf5y0Gk6m6noa7aSiICW_cxiusQxRkWhXgzpO1f_EKJ8gs1iuLmPgduWbW9qVsmILkT0z83k2jxB6pOq1zUzq9D0XBSvevmbHseuAdnDqoTo3Y3s7TNPNjxxA/s1600/Image1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWxNeFL0pIgvXsgkET-Qnf5y0Gk6m6noa7aSiICW_cxiusQxRkWhXgzpO1f_EKJ8gs1iuLmPgduWbW9qVsmILkT0z83k2jxB6pOq1zUzq9D0XBSvevmbHseuAdnDqoTo3Y3s7TNPNjxxA/s320/Image1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Apart from armorial carpets, the Spanish looms also produced a group of geometrical rugs often called Spanish Holbeins and whose field is divided into large squares enclosing octagons.<br />
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The rugs are named Holbeins after the early sixteenth European painter Hans Holbein the Younger because they closely resemble a type of Anatolian rug he depicted in a number of his paintings.<br />
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Dimand notes that the Spanish Holbein’s design “recalls Eastern Islamic marquetry decorations of wood and ivory,” again showing the cross-borrowing between different fields of Islamic art so characteristic to classical rug design.<br />
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It is perhaps inevitable that Spain’s Moorish weavers, once isolated from the rest of the Islamic artistic world by the Christian Reconquista, would eventually lose their creative momentum.<br />
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The fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries – known as the Mudejar period to refer to Moorish craftsmanship under Christian authority – produced many handsome rugs.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk8V6gY2KK80P_crC7LEdvvloBshdRxvK52p4C83UAT5TTK_s4oOLc4mT70ErB1WPOy1B7EQ0VMRgxhFFf9Ty0LrbKPCZCnWlTjh6mdSgOsCU-Xzc1mzYLoxzb99FCu7yCxabAGl3-I-A/s1600/t_Antique-Spanish-Rug-40228.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk8V6gY2KK80P_crC7LEdvvloBshdRxvK52p4C83UAT5TTK_s4oOLc4mT70ErB1WPOy1B7EQ0VMRgxhFFf9Ty0LrbKPCZCnWlTjh6mdSgOsCU-Xzc1mzYLoxzb99FCu7yCxabAGl3-I-A/s1600/t_Antique-Spanish-Rug-40228.jpg" /></a></div>
Among them are the so-called Alcaraz carpets, called after the city of the same name, which were unabashedly European Renaissance in their style. Here is an example of an Alcaraz rug, available from <a href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/antique-rugs/spanish/antique-spanish-rug-40228/"><i><b>Nazmiyal Collection</b></i></a> in New York,<br />
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But by the end of the seventeenth century the last of the Moorish craftsmen had departed and Spain’s oriental carpet era came to a close.<br />
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What’s left for us to enjoy in museums across Europe is a legacy of weaving that tells one of the carpet world’s most dramatic stories.<br />
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It was a time when part of Europe became part the Muslim world, and then part of the world of Islamic art became part of Europe. And it was the beginning of a long history of cultural exchange that continues today.<br />
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Tea and Carpetshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06607321259227169325noreply@blogger.com140tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804437195679232310.post-13474690268805825212012-11-10T00:47:00.002-08:002012-11-14T10:18:34.725-08:00Turkey's Sarabi Rugs Fill In For Banned Persians From Iran<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.ecarpetgallery.com/sarabi-rugs"><imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0DsQgAvFKqR05u-KrwfCkeo1qC8cPlEsgWOo1gdDZlHDOknwPhRCJT-Uylh3mnZBhHkZI9IctrpVGN46K7ru4mZzWpOonNbEfdYTJrq0W4Rjfwsk9R3xRjODezhO4eOsVyxLZAxhFUmA/s320/736616_425x560.jpg" width="243" /></a></div>
November 10, 2012 – Is it time to begin looking for alternatives to Persian rugs woven in Iran?<br />
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If you live in the United States, the answer is probably yes.
The US ban on importing rugs from Iran has now been in place for two years.<br />
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And as long as political tension between Washington and Tehran stays high, the ban isn’t likely to end soon.<br />
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Meanwhile, the stockpiles of new Iranian rugs that dealers can sell – those rugs they had in inventory before the ban started in September 2010 – is running out.<br />
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So, finding any particular style you want can be difficult, if not impossible.<br />
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Fortunately, however, there are ways around the problem.<br />
<br />
One is to look for substitutes among the many excellent Persian rugs that are woven outside of Iran itself. That is, rugs from countries with a long tradition of weaving Persian styles or incorporating Persian design elements into their own weaving heritage.<br />
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<a href="http://www.ecarpetgallery.com/sarabi-rugs"><imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj551Mg77LB7D_49aK9jsVtpyDLquVTn3mLSBg7qWMVjs1LFDj4jrUYv1LlC7pI1MgC6H6-_K9pFl4UPaH-abtsP_oSBLmhbwEhknWuWwAJQeRPJsgEYB0RIWqvrSuHeClCi4-KoRvktT8/s320/737418_425x560.jpg" width="243" /></a></div>
Among those countries is Turkey, which, along with Iran, is one of the world's two highest quality rug producers.<br />
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At the top of this page and on the right are two examples of Persian Heriz-style rugs woven in Turkey.<br />
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Both, known as <a href="http://www.ecarpetgallery.com/sarabi-rugs"><i><b>Turkish Sarabi Rugs</b></i></a>, are available from <a href="http://www.ecarpetgallery.com/"><i><b>ecarpetgallery</b></i></a>, a leading North American on-line store based in Montreal.<br />
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The classic Heriz style shown in these two rugs has always been one of most popular types of Persian carpets in North American homes.<br />
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For many rug lovers, the geometric, four-lobed medallion in their centers is an iconic symbol that instantly conjures up images of stately Victorian homes with luxurious carpets on the floor.<br />
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Historically, Heriz rugs are woven by the Azeri-speaking Turkic inhabitants of the northwestern Iranian city of Heriz and its surrounding towns.<br />
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A particularly famous subgroup of the rugs were those woven at the turn-of-the-last-century in the town of Serabi and known on the rug market as Serapi.<br />
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<a href="http://www.ecarpetgallery.com/sarabi-rugs"><imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfe8Mp4USNRK3scvuhBky369D6HagpPmaok1uqPC06tH0Yrrizg5xr6k9DYrJs9MOCKgvtQHHAv8SPYx1TW0FC5jRTOQdMMwmMS8naswh2eMOSL9TwE1BvZ8we0S5YbEGWKxJMua8s5-4/s320/Turkish+Sarabi.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Since then, Serapi – also spelled Sarabi – has become a term for describing the finest Heriz rugs in general. And it is that name that Turkish producers use for their Heriz carpets, too.<br />
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Turkish-produced <b><a href="http://www.ecarpetgallery.com/Persian-Rugs-Canada.aspx">Persian carpets</a></b> can be very expensive, just as are their Iranian counterparts. Indeed, Turkish and Iranian-produced carpets command the highest prices in today's global rug trade, followed at some distance by those produced in India and China.<br />
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But some major distributors are able to sell the Turkish-produced Persians at highly affordable prices. They do so by dealing in enormous volumes, which allows them to cut out middlemen and, increasingly, by operating on-line to keep showroom costs to a minimum.<br />
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For those looking for still more affordable Persian style rugs, one can move from Turkey to India, which produces many hand-tufted versions of Persian designs.Here is an example, again from <a href="http://www.ecarpetgallery.com/"><i><b>ecarpetgallery</b></i></a>:<br />
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<a href="http://www.ecarpetgallery.com/sarabi-rugs"><imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0JSLE4ahU6w5LGJ69o_ffMwAbF47nbqgjLgrc3-KhPS0kAxcgJJIQfdOVK68yReeLLIrpv1EfVaTzJXkheAkk5QVEvN15fcDhyOI1zXwPuMk0Eziw3iTuAF1g-JYDS-JhzB8Q38H7r2s/s320/Heriz+Rug.jpg" width="256" /></a></div>
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In hand tufting, the weaver pushes wool or a man-made yarn through a matrix material using a hand-held pneumatic gun.<br />
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The technique is faster than hand-knotting, so the rugs are less expensive. Yet the tufting method still creates a durable rug which, when produced by a skilled craftsmen, can accurately depict even intricate designs.<br />
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No-one today can predict how long the US ban on Persian carpets produced in Iran will stay in place.
But it is useful to look back at a similar, earlier ban to get some perspective.<br />
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In October 1987, at height of Iran-Iraq war, then president Ronald Reagan prohibited the importation and exportation of any goods or services to and from Iran, including carpets.<br />
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The embargo lasted a full 13 years, until 2000.
That embargo did what the current ban is doing again now: causing both rug producers and buyers to think about alternatives.<br />
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The last ban stimulated producers in many countries to make Persian-design rugs for the US market. In the process, some beautiful pieces were produced.<br />
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And that helped convince many rug buyers that how a rug looks on the floor can be just as important as where it was woven.<br />
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<a href="http://tea-and-carpets.blogspot.cz/">RETURN TO HOME</a><br />
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Tea and Carpetshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06607321259227169325noreply@blogger.com48tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804437195679232310.post-91573111013130976022012-10-14T08:32:00.000-07:002012-10-14T08:32:21.285-07:00New Era Afghan Rugs: From Ikat To Suzani To Persian Tribal<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.nomadrugs.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=NR&Product_Code=7442&Product_Count=&Category_Code="><imageanchor style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiau-W-xY0lzi6t4OohurdqznivghQBw-FquQzGHY59BO1DFp2fjQaggPfebTlQXs2iuPWZT0BhYJo_Qs1X4axtlCfSJM_phP92Wc2PU1QPx0rfpa8NmG8ECt4OrX5kYHj2sDA6v88ilVE/s320/Afghan+Ikat.jpg" width="320" /></imageanchor></a></div>
SAN FRANCISCO, October 15, 2012 -- What's happening with Afghan rugs?<br />
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In recent years, the range of styles Afghan weavers are exploring has exploded.<br />
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And, with the quality of weaving high and the use of natural colors and hand-spun wool frequent, that means a whole new world of rugs to enjoy.<br />
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Just consider these examples: <br />
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- An Ikat rug (photo above) inspired by Central Asian ikat tie-dye designs.<br />
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- Or a Suzani rug inspired by Central Asian embroidery traditions (photo below).<br />
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These, plus spirited reproductions of Persian town and village rugs like Bijars and Herizes, are all part of the ongoing renaissance of Afghan rug weaving.<br />
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They are available from <a href="http://www.nomadrugs.com/"><i><b>Nomad Rugs</b></i></a> in San Francisco.<br />
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The return of Afghanistan as a notable rug producer is taking place as parts of the country are stable despite the violence elsewhere and weavers who were formerly refugees have returned home.<br />
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<a href="http://www.nomadrugs.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=7621&Category_Code=Persian_Rugs&Product_Count=8"><imageanchor style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5Xes0ZTLp6oOC1-exjw9tDjXqkAqh1IsjxWSQgn7G_gC2Bhp5EYMHYhzT7t4xpXzmgvmnyG1s2DFQ-oc_fx9snxu0uJs5_vRg9iWdw3kuvLJxXns6qFuRBlsChePQFkxREnsi3MjuILU/s320/Afghan+Suzani+Rug.jpg" width="320" /></imageanchor></a></div>
Now in both Kabul and in the North – the homeland of age-old weaving populations like the Turkmen – weavers are creating an astonishing variety of pieces despite what remain difficult production conditions.<br />
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We talked with Chris Wahlgren, who trades in the best of the new Afghan rugs, to learn more about what is behind them.<br />
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Wahlgren, the owner of Nomad Rugs in San-Francisco, sees the new rugs as the latest chapter in a long and fascinating story.<br />
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It's the story of how Afghan weavers have been able to repeatedly re-invent themselves over the past three decades as their own lives have been repeatedly turned upside down.<br />
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The three decades of turmoil began with the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and continue today with the war on the Taliban.<br />
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<a href="http://www.nomadrugs.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=6738&Category_Code=Persian_Rugs&Product_Count=46"><imageanchor style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv3eEtmYEsqKjWWhFOPo_yNSCeGsdZm4GpNvEPb0MO5KJygwLYrUONTf57BUfbRXM_8c74xcB8qocHK4598sgFODeRynIN7ro57e5zZzK86CZ_ikLfsiYICAjbq9AzYUPtHNrLB8GK8ic/s320/Afghan+Bijar.jpg" width="268" /></imageanchor></a></div>
Here is a photo of a new Afghan Bijar carpet. It is available from <a href="http://www.nomadrugs.com/"><i><b>Nomad Rugs</b></i></a> in San Francisco.<br />
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Before 1979, Wahlgren notes, Afghan weavers were almost entirely focused upon the traditional Red Rugs of Central Asia, that is, the traditional designs of the Turkmen and neighboring weaving population's of the region.<br />
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"In those days, it was any size as long as it was red," he says.<br />
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But with the Soviet invasion, and the flight of millions of people to refugee camps in Pakistan and Iran, everything began to change.<br />
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Particularly in Pakistan, with its direct links to the Western market, huge numbers of refugees turned to weaving rugs as a way to stay afloat.<br />
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And to connect to the market, they began to innovate.<br />
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Some of the refugees' first innovations were not very successful as they tried to directly compete with Pakistan's own domestic production of large and finely-woven Pak-Persian carpets.<br />
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Whereas the Pak-Persians were in bright colors, the Afghans wove theirs in the darker brown colors they themselves preferred.<br />
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The results were somewhat gloomy looking pieces the Pakistani traders dismissively called "Kargali," meaning camp, carpets and which are forgotten today.<br />
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But the Afghan weavers kept experimenting.<br />
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They produced Khal Mohammadi rugs with non-traditional Turkmen-inspired designs, Kazaks with Caucasian-inspired designs and, more recently, Ziegler-Chobis with Indo-Persian inspired designs.<br />
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All were successes on the international market.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.nomadrugs.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=6191&Category_Code=Tribal_Rugs&Product_Count=57"><imageanchor style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtQFiseipzkjTNtyCX5mfdCJ9RSwRpclyLOa-z5bszoRDMXe5FsSOqIB1Ox6KRF-Bs5MQapbfaJXj37NsUYdKr6mMTp4EvNns7PQeih9lA3luzSLkg11CoEpFKWjzuvqusosifua10dZI/s320/Afghan+Luri.jpg" width="320" /></imageanchor></a></div>
Here is a a new Afghan with a Persian Luri tribal design and below is one with a Khotan design. Both are available from <a href="http://www.nomadrugs.com/"><i><b>Nomad Rugs</b></i></a> in San Francisco.<br />
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One reason for the success, particularly of the Chobi carpets, was the refugees' willingness to return to the labor-intensive traditional practices of using natural colors.<br />
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That put them at the forefront of what is still a relatively new trend in the rug business and something which many customers like but not all carpet makers are ready to try.<br />
<br />
Wahlgren says that much of the credit for introducing Afghan weavers to the natural color revival goes to Western rug dealers who promoted it in the refugee camps in the early 80s.<br />
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Those dealers included Chris Walter and others who were personally familiar with the pioneering DOBAG natural-dye project in Turkey and believed it could give the refugee market weavers a market edge.<br />
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Today, some Afghan weavers remain in the Pakistani camps while many others have returned to Afghanistan. And in both places, experimentation has become central to Afghan weaving culture.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.nomadrugs.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=NR&Product_Code=6010&Product_Count=&Category_Code="><imageanchor style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRQGNfjUBjHlefanHOm0SYo4j3slSU2CJlNtGJGDU9YGx6h1CyRWQwIDVD4qhO8sL8NID6aH36hbG_VtaEq943mEfjIpVhM4XoeaiebBpdzZLhRmHfLyA-12bTg7g2SKmKS-8UlxzQYaw/s320/Afghan+Khotan.jpg" width="320" /></imageanchor></a></div>
The weavers' links to the international market are assured by hundreds of Afghan-American rugs dealers in the West who track and suggest styles for the weavers to try.<br />
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But one thing that has not changed for Afghan weavers is the difficulty of letting the rest of the world know who weaves the beautiful pieces they produce.<br />
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That is because almost all of their production continues to go to Western markets via the port of Karachi, where it is labeled for export as a product of Pakistan.<br />
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The "Made in Pakistan' label is put on the work of Afghan weavers still in Pakistani refugee camps because they are physically in Pakistan.
And the work of weavers in Afghanistan gets the label because a lack of facilities there means their rugs usually are still washed and trimmed in Pakistan.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
Here is a photo of a "rug truck" taking Afghan carpets to Pakistan.<br />
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The photo is provided by Wahlgren received it from a contact in Afghanistan.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvgwKpnoK4oXgBx67PdZyRrQQFjBzUM3Fh5sdDBNdWc8BaB4uLLiQCtmQh4LMk37GADFSHyW0uns9pk-7raBxvFAuPOKi8mXcEmhyy-Eob8HERk0w4ztrMu_Z3KH-q6l0Giro1N9cg5f8/s1600/RugTruck.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvgwKpnoK4oXgBx67PdZyRrQQFjBzUM3Fh5sdDBNdWc8BaB4uLLiQCtmQh4LMk37GADFSHyW0uns9pk-7raBxvFAuPOKi8mXcEmhyy-Eob8HERk0w4ztrMu_Z3KH-q6l0Giro1N9cg5f8/s320/RugTruck.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
So, how can customers know an Afghan rug from the many other competing rugs on the market from Pakistan, India, China and elsewhere?<br />
<br />
Wahlgren says that dealers today increasingly highlight the Afghan rugs' origin because it is a positive selling point.<br />
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The dealers point to the value-added that comes from the careful work Afghan weavers do based on their own centuries-long tradition of weaving and the esteem carpets hold in their culture.<br />
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But there is something more.<br />
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Unlike in many more stable rug-producing countries like India and China where large rug workshops are the rule, much Afghan weaving is still done at home.<br />
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"In Afghan rugs, you often can feel the weaver's personality," Wahlgren says. "Their rugs feel more handmade and not mass-produced."<br />
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#
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<br />
<a href="http://tea-and-carpets.blogspot.cz/">RETURN TO HOME</a><br />
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Tea and Carpetshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06607321259227169325noreply@blogger.com192tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804437195679232310.post-79810429204864742582012-09-21T23:28:00.002-07:002012-09-23T23:22:20.404-07:00Vintage Scandinavian Rugs And The Intimacy Of Modern Design<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/antique-rugs/scandinavian/vintage-swedish-scandinavian-rug-45511"><imageanchor style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi53oJ6mqQHjVlnYvROQBk3OEEoo2Ut9O6QUlwbT9M7avKVb17vHl3vs4XRXYqrZkifWCFrqocl0fRtbqRJ2KvJfro4DigW6OI8T4UHYH7p8BHSwlos01KFJbk93mSSvZOFjlZ7Q5Y7CBg/s1600/Maas-Fjetterstrom-squares-45511.jpg" /></imageanchor></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
New York, September 22,
2012 – When one thinks of regions of the world with a long history of
hand-woven rugs, Scandinavia may not be the
first place that comes to mind.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But Scandinavian rugs not only have a centuries-old history,
and some fascinating links to Oriental rugs, they also currently are much
sought after by interior designers. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The renewed interest focuses particularly on vintage rugs
woven in the 1920s through 1970s. That was a time when Scandinavian weavers
attracted international recognition both for their pile rugs (called Rya) and
flat-woven rugs (called Rollakan).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Scandinavians did so by experimenting with abstract designs
while continuing to weave with traditional methods – producing rugs that
simultaneously offer the appeal of both the old and the new.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Above is a photo of a carpet designed by renowned Swedish
weaver Marta Maas Fjatterstorm. Below is another by the same designer. Both are
available from <a href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/antique-rugs/scandinavian/"><b><i>Nazmiyal Collection</i></b></a> in New
York.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/antique-rugs/scandinavian/vintage-swedish-rug-scandinavian-rug-45521"><imageanchor style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh92bfwOU6ex8wCl_cnPk08ycNhlB7vLArBk5k-NnTeWK3HMfpViNvO1Lbe8ShZvZ6E4zo17hyLi7ySDDbchy3aPF_spKuEavR34HYEOma-lOd2mEwjd9bPzF46z-HVNvo6ngNa4p2oQHY/s1600/Maas-Fjetterstrom-forest-45521.jpg" /></imageanchor></a></div>
We asked Jason Nazmiyal, whose New York-based Nazmiyal
Collection specializes in antique rugs, why vintage Scandinavians are suddenly
back in demand. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Interior decorators, he says, see the rugs as the perfect
compliment to the wave of nostalgia that is now sweeping the design world for
the styles of the 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Those decades, whose style is increasingly referred to as
"mid-century" modern, was characterized by maximum experimentation
with Minimalism.<br />
The result was bold and striking furnishings and decors, but
not necessarily cozy and comfortable living environments.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The vintage Scandinavian rugs woven during those times offered a solution to the contradiction. They were modern in design but rich in texture and color.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"They draw a room together," Nazmiyal says. "They
can transfer a sparse and minimal space to cozy and luxurious without changing the
overall style."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He notes that one of the reasons the rugs have that power is
that their creators were schooled in industrial design but, at the same time,
were rebelling against too much industrialization. So, they created their own
unique style that combined Modern and Art Deco with the warmer, more human
influences of their own folk art and regional history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/antique-rugs/scandinavian/vintage-swedish-scandinavian-rug-45508"><imageanchor style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeqqSDMFCbBXxuenP_AM_KbGBaZ1B8u8wY_PJOdvWwGffSQtKyMINOuAOnM_rdy8TSWhYpDRU_0F_rbjxajcAkc1Z_SYEBJmFIDLqV-7BjN12yHADAtk2PdcH31spItYBOZN_3qh1qKi0/s1600/Vintage-Swedish-Rug.jpg" /></imageanchor></a></div>
The results can range from whimsical to dramatic, with no
two rugs the same. And because all the rugs were woven not so long ago, the
names of the weavers who created the best pieces are all known. That gives the
rugs a still greater sense of personality.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here is a Swedish Rollakan, available from <a href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/antique-rugs/scandinavian/"><i><b>NazmiyalCollection</b></i></a> in New York.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Nazmiyal, who has personally traveled to Sweden to learn more about the rugs
and acquire top pieces, can reel off some of the key names behind them.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Among the most famous are Elsa Gullberg, born in 1886 and
one of the earliest Swedish textile designers connected to the modern design
movement; Ethal Halvar Andersson, now a nonagenarian; Marta Maas Fjatterstrom,
who got her start at a regional Arts and Crafts Fair and later attracted the
patronage of Ludvig Noble, the brother of the founder of the Noble Prize; and
that is just to name a few.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Many of the women went on to train others as apprentices and
to found workshops, some of which continue today.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Below is a Finnish Rya with abstract circles and lines.
It is available from <a href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/antique-rugs/scandinavian/"><i><b>Nazmiyal Collection</b></i></a> in New York.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/antique-rugs/scandinavian/antique-scandinavian-rug-42367"><imageanchor style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsleG-YrTkKQVKXfI4cRgY7tfa7Cxefg7Kx2YI727ud93kY0JoLyx6LEiNaTU5wyiF_2t5zWIt4H6njnZYuNCPtGvzchbKRurykxczjGPaLoIysbv6CS8UcXzz_Wz2iOIu-daJh0y6TW4/s1600/t_antique_scandinavian_finland_423671.jpg" /></imageanchor></a></div>
But if the renewed interest of interior decorators in the
rugs of the 1920s to 1970s suggests that this period is all there is to know
about Scandinavian rugs, that would be a mistake.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Behind the vintage rugs is a whole history of rug-making
that goes back hundreds of and contains plenty of surprises.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
No-one knows exactly when pile weaving began in Scandinavia but the earliest known examples were not rugs
but sleeping blankets. They were woven to take the place of sleeping furs,
which had been used since time immemorial but have the disadvantage of being
hard to wash.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Interestingly, the earliest regional pile weavings date to
around the same time Scandinavians would have become acquainted with rugs in
the Orient. That was in the Middle Ages, when Vikings were routinely sailing
down the Volga to Byzantium
on trading expeditions.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One of the earliest surviving oriental rugs in Europe, in
fact, was found in Sweden
in 1925. It is the Marby rug, named after the abandoned provincial church where
it was found cut into two pieces and long forgotten.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIKNrRUBAcM3VHOd-LnYQDq5dlQDoun9kx_aaVLLWckXB4uizUUBfVxMvNcGxUhC67HjwjePDsMisy15zZFRRDR_mn8Ycnf_puWZuB7KSEPcyDypKxLuWS87I4fy3XW2Qwjnlaz_TpL-c/s1600/marby_carpet_red.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIKNrRUBAcM3VHOd-LnYQDq5dlQDoun9kx_aaVLLWckXB4uizUUBfVxMvNcGxUhC67HjwjePDsMisy15zZFRRDR_mn8Ycnf_puWZuB7KSEPcyDypKxLuWS87I4fy3XW2Qwjnlaz_TpL-c/s320/marby_carpet_red.jpg" width="210" /></a></div>
The Marby rug, shown here, is one of the so-called animal
carpets from Anatolia which are depicted in
Italian paintings of the 14<sup>th</sup> century. The animal carpets reached
their peak of production and export to Europe
in the early 15<sup>th</sup> century and then disappeared toward the end of the
15<sup>th</sup> century.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Nazmiyal believes that Scandinavians may have taken their
inspiration for pile sleeping blankets from Anatolian "Yataks," which
share the same characteristics and function. If so, it would be another
unexpected link between East and West that underlines again how much is shred
within the world's textile culture.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What is certain is that over time Scandinavians' use of
shaggy rugs went from sleeping on the pile and decorating the back of the
textile to flipping them over and using them as bedspreads with a decorative pile.
Eventually, the bedspreads moved to the floor and became rugs.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Tracing all the design changes in Scandinavian pile and flat
weaves is impossible to do here. But, in broad terms, things moved from
originally simply working the owner's initials into striped geometric designs,
to patterns with crosses to, around 1690, Baroque floral patterns. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Over the centuries, the use of highly decorative pile
bedding rose to the heights of becoming a status symbol for the nobility in
Sweden before losing that esteem in the 17<sup>th</sup> century and becoming
popular as folk bedding instead.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By the time the Scandinavian rugs reached our ea, they had
absorbed so many design influences, including from formal Western art, folk
art, and imported oriental rugs, that they developed – and continue to develop
– a rich vocabulary of their own.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is that rich design vocabulary, their use of a broad
color palette, and their ability to compliment a wide range of styles that
brings vintage Scandinavian rugs back into our homes today. </div>
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#</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://tea-and-carpets.blogspot.cz/">RETURN TO HOME</a></div>
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#</div>
Tea and Carpetshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06607321259227169325noreply@blogger.com63tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804437195679232310.post-21211118971968360082012-07-19T12:46:00.004-07:002012-09-22T01:53:48.146-07:00Bijar Rugs And The Art Of Persian Town And Village Weaving<style>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKUvQIqOaP_8zL8Vjz-jZe6d0OK0RYHRf86K5AIglWiHE1jHUA_4ceoAbEXAz4Oq0NXXbg_WCe2_obKuKnTg4adAzI18LHYiqafkgMe7WuG9xqU_smEMuhywpgFrKCY8u4w9iRNNcsah4/s1600/antique_bidjar_rugs_433601.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKUvQIqOaP_8zL8Vjz-jZe6d0OK0RYHRf86K5AIglWiHE1jHUA_4ceoAbEXAz4Oq0NXXbg_WCe2_obKuKnTg4adAzI18LHYiqafkgMe7WuG9xqU_smEMuhywpgFrKCY8u4w9iRNNcsah4/s320/antique_bidjar_rugs_433601.jpg" width="197" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 13.5pt;"></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">BIJAR, Iran; July
15, 2012 -- When one thinks of Persian carpets, one usually thinks of two ends
of a spectrum. </span><br />
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">At one end:
intricately crafted workshop carpets. At the other: spontaneous tribal carpets.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">But most Persian
carpets lie between these poles and are distinct from both.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">They are the
carpets produced not in city workshops or nomads' tents but in towns and
villages. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">The weavers, often working at home, range from a single person to a
small group and together they form a vast cottage industry. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Usually the
weavers are women weaving part-time to supplement their family income. But
there is nothing informal about their work. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Their skill level is so high -- and
so consistent over generations -- that their towns and villages are
internationally famous for the rugs they weave. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">One of the best-known
examples of town and village weaving are Bijar (or Bidjar) carpets, produced in
the Kurdish town of Bijar and neighboring villages in northwest Iran. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">At the top of this
article is a Bijar with a drop repeat pattern. It is available from the
<a href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/"><i><b>Nazmiyal Collection</b></i></a> in New York.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Bijar carpets
first appeared in Western markets during the 19th century and were particularly
popular in America. They could be found both in homes and in public spaces,
such as university common rooms.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">One reason for
their widespread popularity was their durability. The weavers made them so
strong – so tightly packed and heavy -- that they were nicknamed the "Iron
Rugs of Persia." That also made them especially appealing to men, who
regarded them as a masculine choice for dens and studies.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">How the weavers
made the rugs so durable was no accident. They put three wefts between the rows
of knots, and one of the wefts was not only thicker than the others but
sometimes as thick as a pencil. </span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">That
makes the rugs so stiff and heavy they can barely be folded. They have to be
rolled up for storage.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpCKz-uPCnmRTQysqHtMTBqeylhnpa1j_39WlANICs_uwqYNHT4ZndUqDF-2HkDcXZ0lacKeYGP-AGi6yxk-RJHPR175gI-xe4ubgCSHQs0xn4nycWO6UD4PTVNn3mcmyyv9sbDm0LEGg/s1600/ir-map.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpCKz-uPCnmRTQysqHtMTBqeylhnpa1j_39WlANICs_uwqYNHT4ZndUqDF-2HkDcXZ0lacKeYGP-AGi6yxk-RJHPR175gI-xe4ubgCSHQs0xn4nycWO6UD4PTVNn3mcmyyv9sbDm0LEGg/s320/ir-map.gif" width="298" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">The success of
Bijar rugs – which continues today -- tells much about what historically made
Iran's town and village rugs so successful in general.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">Each of Iran's
famous weaving locales traditionally has something characteristic about the way
its rugs are made. The difference is often in the technique of the rug's
construction or the use of colors and it makes the rugs recognizably native to
an area.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">But what most town
and village weavers don't do is limit their rugs to just a few patterns or
designs. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">They
may have a traditional repertoire of patterns peculiar to the village or
locality, but because they are weaving commercially they do not restrict
themselves to only those.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">As rug experts Murray Eiland and Murray Eiland III note in
their book ‘Oriental Carpets – A Complete Guide’:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">“Any of the popular Persian designs of the nineteenth
century, except for types specifically associated with nomadic tribes, can be
found on Bijars.” That includes Herati, Mina Khani, Floral Arabesque, Harshang,
Weeping Willow, and simple Medallion forms, just to name a few.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Below is a medallion Bidjar carpet with a Herati pattern.
The Herati pattern was the most popular pattern among weavers throughout Persia
in the 19<sup>th</sup> century. The carpet is available from the <a href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/"><i><b>Nazmiyal Collection</b></i></a> in New York.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/antique-rugs/bidjar/antique-bidjar-persian-rug-42158"><imageanchor style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgh-A0_-JBCJvJOtWaRUte3_WWW4f2QiujQX1bGUca268PdV0RVdKlowZcy0487RfVdWJcaHcVHbG6Zg1AEy09njFU9j4nU9K-389VwOSsFUI7SH-x0kaIB9tRwnmmipq6BtQvXkaqOsk/s320/antique_bidjar_carpet_421586.jpg" width="219" /></imageanchor></a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Often, the designs on town and village carpets seem
traceable to the designs on city workshop carpets. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">So much so, that many experts think that local weavers take
their main inspiration from this source and that tribal designs have only a
minor influence. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">But where town and village rugs differ dramatically from
city workshop rugs is in how they interpret patterns.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Whereas workshop rugs are filled with swirling lines and
curves, town and village rugs simplify the curves by making them more angular
and rectilinear. The result is a bolder look that make town and village rugs
something all their own.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The angular stylization of town and village rugs is part
inspiration, part necessity.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The weavers, who are not full-time professionals, have
neither the expertise nor the time to do the high knot-count weaving that
creates minutely graded swirls and curls. So they modify the designs
accordingly.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">There are other differences, too, in how town and village
rugs are woven compared to workshop rugs. One of the most interesting is how
the weaver learns the pattern she or he is using. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">In professional workshops, patterns are usually drawn by
artists and given to the weavers in the form of a ‘cartoon.’ The cartoon, drawn
on grid paper, shows the pattern of the rug knot-by-knot, so the weaver has a
guide to follow no matter how complicated the pattern gets.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">But town and village weavers have traditionally worked by
copying another rug, instead. When
there was a new pattern to learn, it would be transmitted to the weavers in the
form of a sampler rug that contains examples of all the motifs in the design.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href=" http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/antique-rugs/bidjar/antique-bidjar-persian-rug-42815"><imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7xBorR_-siSjwvl_3xQz8nCU2lcKzNfPjNYQiBKmiHlVhsbWN2tpi93nzcudATZBmrN5xVwHC9T2ZEn-6FsItx3bcijJfdB7BLN6-Wt8Mat0WKB7hL7RdZhPPinrp4dNsdVtLUXNreQI/s1600/t_antique_bidjar_sampler_vagireh_rug_carpet_428151.jpg" /></a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The sampler rug, called a wagireh (or vagireh), may show both
the field and border patterns for the carpet, as in the photo above. This
sampler from the 19<sup>th</sup> century is available from<a href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/"><i><b> Nazmiyal Collection</b></i></a>
in New York.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Wagirehs can vary widely in size. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">If the carpet to be woven frequently repeats its elements, a
small wagireh is enough to show the weaver ‘one repeat’ of the pattern.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">But if the pattern continues to change for a long time
before it repeats, a much larger sampler rug is needed. Thus some wagirehs can
be as large as 9 x 5 feet (2.7 x 1.5 meters).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Perhaps not surprisingly, wagirehs themselves have become
collectors’ items in recent years. One reason is that they have become rare as
rug companies today mostly commission rugs by giving local weavers paper
cartoons instead.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Here is a picture of another wagireh, available from
<a href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/"><i><b>Nazmiyal Collection</b></i></a> in New York.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/antique-rugs/bidjar/antique-bidjar-rug-45502"><imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAM0ZuiLFFyzWI_SHUOrcz_3isxSIzWMllTYlIcEgFEIQBrKElFjDG31iTFnEjWoNeJdiK8iw6G8P856il8q9lKYAYnO-Js1qcd3osHnSl7i8l29BS9B1JREkUadhCOdjk_7Cwoheg2yA/s1600/color-45502.jpg" /></a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Through the centuries, town and village weavers have proved
to be more than just highly skilled weavers. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">They have also provided a
depository for weaving skills that might otherwise have become lost in the ups
and downs of the workshop carpet industry.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Just that happened when Persia’s court-sponsored workshop
system collapsed during the tumultuous period that followed the end of the Safavid
dynasty in 1722. The workshop virtually disappeared until the revival of the
Persian carpet industry again in the 19<sup>th</sup> century.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Eiland and Eiland note that during that time – when export
of Persian rugs to foreign markets stopped and most of the rugs sent to Europe
were Anatolian – the weaving that continued in Persia was only “at a modest
level to meet local needs.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">That modest level was the ongoing work of Persia’s cottage
industry, whose rugs only became known to the West following the explosion of
foreign demand for Persian carpets in the second half of the 1800s.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The explosion of foreign demand not only brought Persia’s
dormant workshop industry back to life, it sparked an enormous export of town
and village rugs to the West, too. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Ever since, town and village rugs have provided the bulk of
Persian carpets in Western homes. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">#</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<a href="http://tea-and-carpets.blogspot.cz/"><span style="font-size: small;">RETURN TO HOME </span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: small;">#</span></div>
Tea and Carpetshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06607321259227169325noreply@blogger.com48tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804437195679232310.post-4305567540243380272012-05-19T07:08:00.000-07:002012-05-21T10:02:26.559-07:00Silk Carpets And The Story Of The Silk Road<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/antique-rugs/antique-product-type/antique-silk-tabriz-persian-rug-7991"><imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoZ0csHRtVByINeOA8I8JPknKIO0U5YuQa3Np7NP11e_580I9_tb7BUPrsgaHNTrulcD9T4hfZdP_2TVLkVtDft8IJaLalRPp1nNZ0f1glzcVNnbuE_vTHquzi2UY72yiM5ocMeSdRBRM/s320/Antique_Tabriz_Persian_iran_Rugs_79911.jpg" width="237" /></imageanchor="1"></a></div>
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PRAGUE, May 15, 2012 -- There are few things in this world more mysterious than silk carpets.<br />
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More than any other kind of rug, they conjure up images of ancient luxury from distant lands, of camel caravans and the Silk Roads.<br />
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But in reality, very little is known about where silk carpets came from – or even whether they ever traveled the Silk Roads at all.<br />
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The reason: silk is not only the most luxurious of weaving materials, it is also the most perishable.<br />
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So, like the ephemeral nature of beauty itself, they exist for only a time before taking their secrets with them.<br />
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The oldest surviving silk carpets are from the 16th century, where they were woven in the Safavid court of Persia. That was a time when the Silk Roads were already giving way to increasing sea trade between Asia and Europe and the modern era was beginning.<br />
<br />
Above is an antique silk carpet woven in Tabriz, Iran, in the last century. Below is an antique silk Khotan rug from East Turkestan. Both are available from the <b><i><a href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/manhattan-new-york-location/">Nazmiyal Collection</a></i></b> in New York.<br />
<br />
Whether silk carpets were woven before these oldest surviving examples is a question that continues to fascinate experts.<br />
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<a href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/detail-image/?image=antique_sarghand_persian_rug_433072"><imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjizC3E_ADIzLu48qMnCo45G4SvzXnXghIz7mDR9mGuFWXbvxyuAxPFTxo_rWgFpcwbxvYkJR0lr6I2GfnPlaEax9s_t2BYBokZvWBfc4y3W-R0lv15PPxfefpZ2IS8oGYyRBCAhGZWhVE/s320/antique+silk+khotan_rug_433072.jpg" width="189" /></imageanchor="1"></a></div>
Many think they must have been, because silk has bewitched mankind and been woven into fabrics since the very earliest times.<br />
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Yet it is equally possible that silk carpet weaving did not begin until carpet weaving itself reached its greatest heights under royal patronage in the 16th century.<br />
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That was when rulers across the Islamic world vied to outshine each other by creating the most splendid objects in court workshops without regard to difficulty or cost.<br />
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As one expert, Jon Thompson, notes, both the difficulty and cost of weaving silk carpets were far greater in earlier times than today.<br />
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And that could suggest that no weavers other than those in court workshops would have been able to undertake it.
Thompson writes in his book Silk, Carpets and the Silk Roads (1988):<br />
<br />
<i>"The silk carpet is in a class of its own in terms of the specialization involved in its production. For a start an enormous amount of silk is required, it must be dyed by highly skilled professionals, the looms have to be built to a standard appropriate to the fineness of the carpet to be woven, and so on."</i><br />
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The reason silk carpets particularly appealed to royal courts despite the difficulty was that they combined a number of extraordinary qualities at once.<br />
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<a href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/detail-image/?image=detail-44834%20"><imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhliEKtiJU1xq-5n36FZYLI-Lj8pmp45AwYBZ245CKBu1_dIB5xjMkgu4_xRxbbOmtltUyhOoKlkuQ234_lQdy1m8Mnd-yPAuHr0k8lzL7TPNivHD_pHxad8kc7kHMnk1sdbwqQL5n_Sto/s320/Antique+Hereke+Turkish+Rug+44834.jpg" width="320" /></imageanchor="1"></a></div>
For one, the knot count that weavers could achieve with fine silk threads was far greater than could be achieved with wool.<br />
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That allowed the depiction of much greater detail in carpets than before, including in naturalistic scenes.<br />
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Here is a carpet woven in Turkey's famous silk-weaving town of Hereke depicting Istanbul in stunning detail. It is available from the <b><i><a href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/manhattan-new-york-location/">Nazmiyal Collection</a></i></b> in New York.<br />
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At the same time, silk could be used entirely to weave a carpet or to provide highlights to a wool carpet, in either case bringing a texture and sheen that could not be achieved with any other material.<br />
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But most of all, it was the "richness" of silk – its millennia-old association with wealth and luxury – that made silk carpets undisputed status symbols for any court which wove them.<br />
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Those courts included not just those of the Safavids but famously also the Mughals in India, the Ottomans in Turkey, and the Mamluks in Egypt.<br />
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To fully appreciate the richness associated with silk can be hard today, when we are used to seeing silk cloth mass produced for clothes, as well as many synthetic imitations.<br />
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But a quick review of just how strange a substance natural silk is, and how rare it once was, can bring back the feeling.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF9ICkC8WH_c0YPTeKU7tPOBRODbo_yhnS3M_2kW0N24zOecgBJc_9zBZpBISXbK0yyScR7B-8hhV_-9RAMQ43gnXSMqNu6iyTBDBImeWLBwzUDXVmFVDo0AphcEhyZS79qSmebF7V1K4/s1600/SilkRoadMap.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF9ICkC8WH_c0YPTeKU7tPOBRODbo_yhnS3M_2kW0N24zOecgBJc_9zBZpBISXbK0yyScR7B-8hhV_-9RAMQ43gnXSMqNu6iyTBDBImeWLBwzUDXVmFVDo0AphcEhyZS79qSmebF7V1K4/s320/SilkRoadMap.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
Silk appears to have first fascinated people for both its unusual source – insect cocoons – and its translucence when it is woven into a sheer fabric.<br />
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The classical Roman historian Pliny the Elder wrote:<br />
<br />
<i>"The process of unravelling … and weaving a thread again was first invented in (the Greek island of) Cos by a woman named Pamphile, daughter of Plateus, who has the undoubted distinction of having devised a plan to reduce women's clothing to nakedness."</i><br />
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Cos (or Kos), in the Aegean Sea near the coast of Turkey, was a major early producer of silk, which was obtained by gathering cocoons abandoned by silk worms after they metamorphosed into moths.<br />
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The cocoons, broken open when the moths exited, provided broken strands of silk that could be spun into thread.<br />
<br />
But demand for silk really took off after ancient China discovered the secret of cultivating silk worms so that the cocoons could be collected before they were broken open.<br />
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That allowed later unraveling the silk thread that forms the cocoon the same way the silk worm had originally woven the cocoon, with a single unbroken filament up to a kilometer long.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQZoT18XnMbQMG_SDdM2ZjaCVXraS7zYOZVBKy__M_9oDa0LyJJWOR0nsQBRxe0K-SWymE5Z2tQsFAE-5eUwrX3z8CjGtd8Pz6MRnAlGqJ1flKZ8BWfujSLJvgfWbeDsXipRYRzfADdj8/s1600/silk+worm+cocoons.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQZoT18XnMbQMG_SDdM2ZjaCVXraS7zYOZVBKy__M_9oDa0LyJJWOR0nsQBRxe0K-SWymE5Z2tQsFAE-5eUwrX3z8CjGtd8Pz6MRnAlGqJ1flKZ8BWfujSLJvgfWbeDsXipRYRzfADdj8/s320/silk+worm+cocoons.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Here is a picture of the cocoons of the silk worm, or Bombyx mori.<br />
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The caterpillar weaves its bird-egg sized cocoon with a weblike filament excreted by a spinneret on its lower lip.<br />
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The construction begins with attaching the web to twigs and then moves inwards as the caterpillar twists its body round and round to fully enclose itself over the course of several days.<br />
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When producers in China spun thread from the unbroken silk filaments, the quality was vastly superior to anything before.<br />
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The thread, and fabrics from it, created enormous demand across Eurasia, including in ancient Rome.<br />
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Pliny writes that the Roman Empire spent vast amounts importing silk from the East via the trading routes that today we call the Silk Roads.<br />
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So much so, that the Roman Senate eventually forbade men from wearing silk in hopes of at least confining the demand to women, but to no effect.<br />
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Interestingly, as much as ancient Rome valued its silk imports, it had no idea precisely where they originated. The Romans simply described it as coming from a land they called Seres and which they imagined to be at the end of the world.<br />
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Thompson gives this explanation of where the word Seres might have come from:<br />
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<i>"The term probably does not even refer to China itself but to a region of the Tarim Basin, in Chinese Turkestan or Sin-kiang (Xinjiang), through which silk passed on its overland route to the West. The last stop on this route before the mountains, Kashgar, formerly called Sarag, may be the origin of the word Serica. If this is so, it underlines how little the Mediterranean world knew of China."</i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGI-8iNTk1tgSR-P6uePtvQZyy92hA4XyLiAYomkNUrdfI3zySmIStTIqM-5rQW3bjyj1V-y-D-ChDEGlblbbelCkxonWDdSJMOxzQPGSiBqS7bCPRpcdRSk03yK78P96x6WBquCvMopE/s1600/Silk_from_Mawangdui_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGI-8iNTk1tgSR-P6uePtvQZyy92hA4XyLiAYomkNUrdfI3zySmIStTIqM-5rQW3bjyj1V-y-D-ChDEGlblbbelCkxonWDdSJMOxzQPGSiBqS7bCPRpcdRSk03yK78P96x6WBquCvMopE/s320/Silk_from_Mawangdui_2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Here is a picture of the kind of silk fabrics that traveled the Silk Roads.<br />
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The road also carried, in reverse, Roman glass to China, which would not discover the secret of clear, colored glass until 424 AD.<br />
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Eventually, China's secret of how to cultivate silkworms leaked out to Japan in the 4th century and Persia in the 5th and 6th century, creating major silk industries in both places.<br />
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As knowledge of the technique spread, the supply of silk goods became ever less of a problem yet the demand for silk, and inventive new forms of silk weaving, has remained high right up to our own times.<br />
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The question of when silk carpets first joined the list of silk luxury goods may never be resolved.<br />
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But today they continue to provide one of the most popular ways to include silk in home decors and enjoy the sense of luxury and mystery it imparts.<br />
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#<br />
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<a href="http://tea-and-carpets.blogspot.com/">RETURN TO HOME</a><br />
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#Tea and Carpetshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06607321259227169325noreply@blogger.com119tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804437195679232310.post-84858765542211099232012-04-11T11:28:00.024-07:002012-04-21T00:17:59.447-07:00How A. Cecil Edwards Wrote The Book On Persian Carpets<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/antique-rugs/all-over/antique-kashan-persian-rug-43338/"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 206px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieCfQ1t2_cXJcjnoipHqYGO8skOudDmAQEA9lesBtaitkl1TkMzt_Boiigpe3xq-PCuqN24ONxgLwHgi65I9OoFzwvzid4XNbmI_OFsr6YfQh15UPFx3ZseuWd1bf6YA_1mD0r5D1mAVY/s320/kashanr+433381.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5730212435356905970" /></a>LONDON, April 15, 20102 -- Books on oriental carpets are still a relatively new phenomenon, with the oldest dating back only to around 1900.<br /><br />But if there is one book that is the most interesting of all, it may be "The Persian Carpet" by A. Cecil Edwards. <br /><br />Part of the reason is that the book, published in 1953, is a comprehensive guide to the Persian carpet industry of the early 1900s, the period during which many of the Persian carpets in Western households today were made.<br /><br />But the other reason the book is so interesting is the author himself. <br /><br />Edwards was intimately familiar with his subject because, from the years 1900 to 1947, he was a leading figure in the rug business and spent much time in Iran.<br /><br />Below is a picture of the book's cover. <br /><br />And at the top of this page is a photo of the kind of Persian carpet Edwards particularly admired: a carpet from Kashan. It is available from the <span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/">Nazmiyal Collection</a></span></span> in New York.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbkgztbT7n6dwbA4ARnxnet7royqaQetQ1GoKukMpmy9p2Wl5fOZaW26qZbsujWmgs-ejR5rzkOkDr1WywymzPgiqClg0n-pRIV9Ol93odHjpCMrfGYzgbfPy1279E9n61Em5igRMzKVs/s1600/the+persian+carpet.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 247px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbkgztbT7n6dwbA4ARnxnet7royqaQetQ1GoKukMpmy9p2Wl5fOZaW26qZbsujWmgs-ejR5rzkOkDr1WywymzPgiqClg0n-pRIV9Ol93odHjpCMrfGYzgbfPy1279E9n61Em5igRMzKVs/s320/the+persian+carpet.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5730212600448785986" /></a>Edwards belongs to that bygone generation of British professionals who sought their fortunes in the East at the turn-of-the-last century through a combination of luck and daring.<br /><br />His story begins in Istanbul, where his great uncle, George Baker, was the official gardener for the Turkish sultan and his uncle, James Baker, was a co-founder of Oriental Carpet Manufacturers, or OCM. <br /><br />At the time, OCM was already one of the world's most successful international carpet companies. When it was founded in Smyrna (now Izmir) in 1908 as a merger of six major carpet manufacturing firms, it had a start-up capitalization of £400,000 - a massive sum for that day. <br /><br />Young Cecil Edwards joined OCM as it bought and manufactured carpets in Turkey and Persia and exported them to the British market. He soon found himself focusing on Persia, moving to Hamadan in northwest Persia in 1911 to take charge of the company's production there. <br /><br />Northwest Persia at the time was the center of much of the country's weaving for export trade. But Persia did not just interest Edwards and his American wife Clara, for its carpets. They both became fascinated by the history and culture which surrounded them.<br /><br />Here is a picture of Gang Nameh, one of the most impressive relics of the ancient Persian Empire, just 5 km southwest of Hamadan. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk3DrvWuZWNE_KyHY9zey1t7OrLMtq-EOLQ3QKHdjoP6KdVKkucThvkvZcHYF-mnEPuo0H7XGgJGwWNI8g8P3e5Wey0NZm8HN2Q2C_WxlqpV7YzjQyStiJ7k7M0-xxH9PT_iCw0ssO27w/s1600/ganj+nameh.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 239px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk3DrvWuZWNE_KyHY9zey1t7OrLMtq-EOLQ3QKHdjoP6KdVKkucThvkvZcHYF-mnEPuo0H7XGgJGwWNI8g8P3e5Wey0NZm8HN2Q2C_WxlqpV7YzjQyStiJ7k7M0-xxH9PT_iCw0ssO27w/s320/ganj+nameh.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5730212759663078034" /></a>It is a pair of inscriptions on the side of Alvand Mountain. <br /><br />The one on the left was ordered by Darius the Great (521-485 BC) and the one on the right by Xerxes the Great (485-65 BC). <br /><br />Each section is carved in three languages -- Old Persian, Neo-Babylonian and Neo-Elamite – and describe the lineage and deeds of each king.<br /><br />Both Cecil and Clara began to write about the world around them as they made Persia their home for the next 12 years. He tried fiction and she wrote detailed letters to relatives which are now collected in the archives of Bryn Mawr College, her alma mater.<br /><br />Cecil's first published book, a collection of short stories, was "The Persian Caravan." It appeared in 1928 and was a collection of unrelated tales whose exotic characters ranged from aghas, to Russian officers, to British missionaries – all apparently inspired by the people he saw around him. The text is occasionally sprinkled with ghazels by the poet Hafez.<br /><br />Despite Edward's profession, "The Persian Caravan" rarely mentions carpets -- except when describing a luxurious setting. As in this passage, when an unidentified narrator visits a friend, a former defense minister, who has been arrested by the leader of a palace coup:<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">"My host had ordered his servants to prepare lunch in the posthouse. He ushered me, in due course, into the principal chamber. I found the earth floor garnished with a noble carpet from Kashan, where the best carpets in the world are woven. On the carpet a printed cloth was spread. It was dotted with little bowls of stews and sweetmeats; and like a sun, in the centre of that fragrant system, lay a huge metal platter, heaped with steaming..."</span><br /><br />It is interesting that Edwards mentions Kashan carpets as the best in the world because, much later, when he wrote his definitive book on Persian carpets he would repeatedly say the same. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/antique-rugs/kashan-style/page/3/"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 239px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCvvXaPOREgZvesCgtEiEvz9OiwmAE1eMtEOHXBMShroMx0VKCAVYwr7qT_4q_kso-OBZcqpANdPXuinpx8G4b2X04wZIEOs2C8foKMf6Y-PX5LySWkwEKhnRez0sy2Pt-T8gmi_QKLu8/s320/kashan-42624.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5730578660029232418" /></a>So much so, in fact, that some modern critics fault him for devoting too much time to Kashan's production compared to his survey of the rest of the Persian carpets of his time. <br /><br />Here is another Kashan carpet of the kind Edwards might have admired. It is available from the <span style="font-style:italic;"><span style="font-weight:bold;"><a href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/">Nazmiyal Collection</a></span></span> in New York.<br /><br />Just when Edwards decided to write about the Persian carpet industry is unclear. But when the Edwards left Persia for London in 1923, his book was still a quarter of a century away from appearing. <br /><br />In London, Edwards was managing director of OCM and is credited with making the decision to expand the company's market to America. In partnership with one of the biggest importers in the US market – Fritz and La Rue – OCM's rugs entered virtually every major department store chain in the United States in the years leading up to World War II. <br /><br />Yet Edwards' interests remained both intellectual and commercial as he rose to the top of his profession. He was an early pioneer of globalization, increasingly moving production to India to make oriental carpets more affordable to average buyers. But he and Clara also developed firm friendships with historian Arnold Toynbee and the William Blake bibliographer Geoffrey Keynes. <br /><br />Finally in 1948 the couple returned again to Persia (renamed in 1935 as Iran). The goal was for Cecil to complete research for his book which would be entitled, "The Persian Carpet: A Survey of the Carpet Weaving Industry of Persia." <br /><br />The book was published five years later, in 1953. But by a sad twist of fate, both Cecil's and Clara's health were worsening by then. Clara's mind had begun to fail and in 1951 she entered a retreat near Brighton. Cecil died in 1953, followed closely by Clara in 1955. <br /><br />The Edwards' story ends sadly but it is one of a fascinating life lived at a fascinating time.<br /><br />"The Persian Carpet" won the highest accolades it could hope to win by being published to acclaim in English and also being translated into Farsi.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgB9UEuWGWJ9tvljC7nUB1rZGSBP-SDZ2SiDoGRmR98iU79ncGMvg6NXH_CYSo7Z_kw807lW4-BWSwqPafoNtYHXOLhYCYwF0jwZn3TfMKAl6JyGVi1vJWHzl3hqvX5WYHiOJU66LkgiE/s1600/Three+Camels.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 218px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgB9UEuWGWJ9tvljC7nUB1rZGSBP-SDZ2SiDoGRmR98iU79ncGMvg6NXH_CYSo7Z_kw807lW4-BWSwqPafoNtYHXOLhYCYwF0jwZn3TfMKAl6JyGVi1vJWHzl3hqvX5WYHiOJU66LkgiE/s320/Three+Camels.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5730213098701359666" /></a>And the saga of the OCM has inspired another full book of its own. <br /><br />It is "Three Camels To Smyrna: Times of War and Peace in Turkey, Persia, India, Afghanistan & Nepal 1907-1986 - The Story of the Oriental Carpet Manufacturers Company."<br /><br />The book, by Antony Wynn, explores the dramatic history of the Near and Middle East in the twentieth century from the point of view of the men and women involved in the carpet trade. <br /><br />Among them, to be sure, are A. Cecil and Clara Edwards.<br /><br /><br />#<br /><br /><a href="http://tea-and-carpets.blogspot.com/">RETURN TO HOME</a><br /><br />#Tea and Carpetshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06607321259227169325noreply@blogger.com210tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804437195679232310.post-8867904448098727052012-03-17T02:01:00.008-07:002012-04-12T09:02:47.512-07:00New York International Carpet Show Set For September<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5kZWbbxV_YMUGyRhO_Tns8U8VAqfFQV4mrFnElqZkXoZcf5tPTMRH_H1O2394IaIV64vcfUV2cSG5WmgOdm3kGo0TXwOEBhW7IAZ57T5pMZoPfoQN6IvTgbmWb1PNRymgyTfzDnbQFiU/s1600/tn.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 258px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5kZWbbxV_YMUGyRhO_Tns8U8VAqfFQV4mrFnElqZkXoZcf5tPTMRH_H1O2394IaIV64vcfUV2cSG5WmgOdm3kGo0TXwOEBhW7IAZ57T5pMZoPfoQN6IvTgbmWb1PNRymgyTfzDnbQFiU/s320/tn.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5720789003715720194" /></a>NEW YORK, March 15, 2012 --<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">There are a handful of must-go carpet shows for anyone who wants to see the incredible variety of top quality pieces being made in the carpet world today. One of these is the New York International Carpet Show, which takes place in New York in September. The organizers recently sent us this announcement about the upcoming show:</span><br /><br />There's a continuing revolution in the handmade carpet industry for new, fashion-forward design that uses sustainable materials, innovative textures and a wide range of customer-friendly colors. In this economy, carpets have to be fresh and sell for good value. Exciting designs with showstopping colors and textures make heads turn.<br /><br />To meet this growing demand, Dennis Dodds created the New York International Carpet Show that has been held each September during the peak buying season for the past eight years. Dates for the 2012 Fall Market trade event are Sunday through Tuesday, September 9th, 10th and 11th. Mark your calendars now.<br /><br />Dodds, who is also an architect and a collector of rare antique tribal rugs, gives credit to his top exhibitors: “They are the main marketmakers -- the movers and shakers. They meet uncertainty with creative ideas and stunning carpets that resonate with consumers in the marketplace.”<br /><br />Acclaimed as one of the industry’s “must-go” trade sources for high-end handmade carpets, NYICS is held at the prestigious 7 West New York Showrooms, directly across from the Empire State Building at 5th Avenue and 34th Street in midtown Manhattan. This convenient location is just steps away from New York’s carpet district and creates an unequalled anchor destination in the middle of New York City. <br /><br />“NYICS elevates the brands of our artisan carpetmakers and extends our reach into a larger and more varied pool of buyers,” says Dodds. A national trade database and promotion to the influential design community pulls new faces to NYICS. The show will be cross-marketed with the huge New York Home Fashions Market that runs the same week.<br /><br />Buyers attending NYICS have come to expect ravishing one-of-a-kind-carpets, deep programs, stunning new collections and custom capabilities from top importers. Dodds summarizes the show: “We’re a boutique event and a catalyst for business. This is a design driven, high-end carpet space where buyers will make bigger profits.”<br /><br />To find out more, go to <a href="http://www.nyics.com/"><span style="font-weight:bold;">www.NYICS.com</span></a>, or contact <span style="font-weight:bold;">NYICS1@juno.com</span>.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">(Photo is of the carpet "Reflection-Sky" designed and produced by <a href="http://woolandsilkrugs.com/">Wool & Silk Rugs</a>. The rug won the Best Modern Design Deluxe Award at Domotex 2012 as a premier example of imaginative new rugs being woven today.)</span><br /><br />#<br /><br /><a href="http://tea-and-carpets.blogspot.com/">RETURN TO HOME</a><br /><br />#Tea and Carpetshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06607321259227169325noreply@blogger.com337tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804437195679232310.post-30364008163220302552012-02-13T23:43:00.000-08:002012-02-14T22:57:01.948-08:00DOBAG Rugs And The Return To Natural Colors<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.peterlinden.com/currentstock-cat.html?cat=4"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 217px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHD4dwHI0KqC1aYF-QuflgmRIop7zZ4Y1wCX_noY-13KLmp0SN6twHa2bBt_PFleEm8As4SEVgkWDGmHxc0tuylnt7_NpSrTaqBBuN_53A0fv0bt5z0sKKNlIOcjrlVpUaxLLuJKK8I4A/s320/cropped+dobag+peter+linden.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5699989006100508274" /></a>ISTANBUL, February 15, 2012 -- One of the greatest changes in carpet making in modern times is the return to natural dyes.<br /><br />It began in Turkey in the 1960s, and it is the story of largely one man: a German chemist. His work in recreating natural dyes helped launch a project to convince villager weavers to give up synthetic dyes and return to traditional plant-based dyes instead.<br /><br />Many of those plant dyes had disappeared from rugs for more than a century.<br /><br />The result was a revolution in color whose success has inspired thousands of other producers around the carpet world to now move partly or wholly back to using natural dyes, too. <br /><br />The name of the chemist is Harald Boehmer and the project, carried out by a Turkish university, is the Natural Dye Research and Development Project, better known by its Turkish acronym DOBAG. <br /><br />The rugs that the Turkish villages in the DOBAG project produced – and still produce – are simply called DOBAGs. Here, and at the top of the page are photos of two DOBAGs, both available from <span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://www.peterlinden.com/currentstock-cat.html?cat=4">Peter Linden</a></span></span> in Dublin.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.peterlinden.com/currentstock-cat.html?cat=4"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 259px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMXe0hHBUCcewXNyan-JvrkilVrpXMXuYJOH-dCy5v6HpDfmR8x9YzEw93vi_41qurrF6UkXSh_AWGX5jvbfMDumutdkenYlLnyyBUBP6tEMAW9kTs7StF6T9Bwqen2zizzAU7bff61IY/s320/cropped+med+dobag+peter+linden.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5699988840415352418" /></a>Boehmer came to Istanbul in the 1960s to teach chemistry and other sciences at the German School and with his wife Renate soon became fascinated by Turkish carpets. It was at a time when Turkish carpets had been in decline for decades under the pressures of mass production and the urge to use ever cheaper synthetic dyes to lower costs. <br /><br />Instead of being repelled by the poor quality rugs, the Boehmers were intrigued. Why, they wondered, were the centuries-old rugs they saw in Turkish museums so vastly superior to Turkey's modern production? <br /><br />The answer, they decided, was not the quality of the weaving but the use of chemical dyes in place of the older rug's plant-based ones.<br /><br />But if the Boehmers became interested in the old natural dyes, learning how to recreate them set the science-minded couple off on a lifetime journey. <br /><br />The Boehmers began scouring the Turkish countryside to find weavers old enough to still remember what plants their grandparents used to extract colors. At the same time, they conducted their own analysis of old rugs using the laboratory technique of chromatography. <br /><br />Putting the two sources of information together, they were eventually able to reconstruct all of the missing natural dyes.<br /><br />With support from Istanbul's Marmara University, the next phase was to interest villagers in again producing the old dyes and weaving with them. The project began with villages in Canakkale province bordering the Dardanelle Straits, expanded to more villages in Turkey's southwest, and DOBAG rugs were born.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPHJCGqlThi5JFLnapwkzEn47HFBLLGn8dW13B27c6urVZ2611QDlIquO1voSGvP21fuket6_50fscpPEccG-RD6aC4jajOvg-fCiIeCE_fqIqMLy9JiG48jdN7aG6A0sb-LHnDjeQjH8/s1600/Canakkale+Province.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 264px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPHJCGqlThi5JFLnapwkzEn47HFBLLGn8dW13B27c6urVZ2611QDlIquO1voSGvP21fuket6_50fscpPEccG-RD6aC4jajOvg-fCiIeCE_fqIqMLy9JiG48jdN7aG6A0sb-LHnDjeQjH8/s320/Canakkale+Province.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5699988609130124402" /></a>To appreciate just how revolutionary was the idea of returning to natural dyes, it is interesting to recall the history of the synthetic dye industry, which developed in Britain and Germany in the mid 1800s and whose products spread to weavers across the world.<br /><br />In 1856, an English chemistry student, William Perkins, discovered synthetic dyes while attempting to synthesize quinine, used as a medicine against malaria. The purple dye he created inexpensively by accident was so obviously desirable to the textile industry that he immediately applied for a patent. <br /><br />Perkin's professor, Wilhelm von Hoffmann, also recognized the significance of the accidental discovery. He later returned to his home country of Germany and set off a race between German universities and British ones to synthesize more, better, and cheaper colors. <br /><br />The new dyes spread quickly to the carpet world because the second half of the 19th century was also a time when European demand for oriental carpets was exploding. A series of international expositions between 1851 and 1876 had fanned huge interest in eastern – and particularly Turkish carpets – and demand suddenly outstripped supply. <br /><br />Jane Peterson describes neatly why the Turkish carpet industry embraced the new synthetic dyes in her 1991 article "A Passion for Color," published in Saudi Aramco Magazine:<br /><br />"Rug prices increased. But higher prices could neither speed up the laborious hand-work needed to collect raw materials for natural dyes, nor increase the supply of those dye plants that were not cultivated crops."<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirc0inNeuJLPuEICduY3q3CKQwtlGpNhJtHkDz5j46myl84hW6Rh36yLIaBRClfEZWaXsgOuOv2CcPB6SxSm7MwUL-yiHN4aypoqyhG8w5O8b4ErOFO6EjB-Ekm5FFSGMpk-wKzzrB4LE/s1600/yellow+chamomile.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirc0inNeuJLPuEICduY3q3CKQwtlGpNhJtHkDz5j46myl84hW6Rh36yLIaBRClfEZWaXsgOuOv2CcPB6SxSm7MwUL-yiHN4aypoqyhG8w5O8b4ErOFO6EjB-Ekm5FFSGMpk-wKzzrB4LE/s320/yellow+chamomile.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5699988433499297234" /></a>Here is a picture of one plant traditionally used in Turkey to produce yellow: chamomile<br /><br />The new synthetic dyes offered multiple advantages. They not only were available in quantity, they also were cheaper and less-time consuming to use than plant dyes. By the 1880s the majority of Turkey's big carpet manufactories were using them and by the eve of World War I even nomad and peasant weavers were, too.<br /><br />The synthetic dyes colors reigned – and still reign – so supreme that rug dealers estimate 95 percent of the rugs available on the market today are made with chemical dyes. <br /><br />Thus, for natural colors to challenge that supremacy today requires not only changing the weaving world's work habits and economic patterns, it also means changing what have become established tastes among carpet buyers.<br /><br />Both synthetic and natural dyes have their admirers. <br /><br />Synthetic dyes, being the result of a chemical process, produce monochrome colors. If the color is red, it is a single shade of red, with no variations of shades within it. <br /><br />That means every piece of red-dyed yarn will be identical, producing a near-perfect evenness of color. When the carpet is woven, the red knots will stand out in full contrast to the knots woven in other pure colors around it, creating a powerful effect.<br /><br />By contrast, natural dyes produce polychrome colors. If the color is red, there are multiple shades of red in it because that is how colors occur in nature. The same spontaneity of multiple shades carries over to the plant-dyed yarn. <br /><br />When the carpet is woven, these subtle variations of hues will be apparent in each red knot. And because all the other plant-dyed colors in the carpet equally contain multiple shades, the colors overall will subtly harmonize. The contrasts between them will be softened, creating a mellow effect.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitoLudAhAhdayXeQRC8B2dYYStTVCEOn1mMz9TivjDzQiMEt4a4lYeP2PKzcH8CwkTL55YAbAxHP4PEMGJwh5f4lbI30pUB3U9YloSwtpnp5shWu0KGYbhSodqinDZp00QutJZdCpIMnA/s1600/dobag+dying.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitoLudAhAhdayXeQRC8B2dYYStTVCEOn1mMz9TivjDzQiMEt4a4lYeP2PKzcH8CwkTL55YAbAxHP4PEMGJwh5f4lbI30pUB3U9YloSwtpnp5shWu0KGYbhSodqinDZp00QutJZdCpIMnA/s320/dobag+dying.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5699988246707149346" /></a>This photo shows DOBAG weavers preparing dyes by boiling plants they have collected.<br /><br />As more rug producers across the carpet world now explore returning to natural dyes, the question will be how customers adapt to the suddenly expanded range of choices.<br /><br />Will they strongly prefer either natural or synthetic colors over one another or – perhaps more likely -- will they find a place for both in their homes? <br /><br />The pleasure for every carpet lover will be in exploring the possibilities and, in the process, the wonderful world of colors around us.<br /><br />#<br /><br /><a href="http://tea-and-carpets.blogspot.com/">RETURN TO HOME</a><br /><br />#Tea and Carpetshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06607321259227169325noreply@blogger.com146tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804437195679232310.post-40738930034673995182011-12-31T04:07:00.001-08:002012-02-05T07:45:29.459-08:00Bad Goods: How Counterfeiters Weave Antique Rugs From Scratch<span style="font-style:italic;">Fakes of antique carpets are nothing new in the rug business. But today's versions are technically so good that they can fool even top rug experts and sell for big money. How do the counterfeiters do it? Textile researcher and traveler Vedat Karadag has been looking into the question for 15 years from his home base in Istanbul and shares this information.</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTfU97qabU6-gxidhyACK4PXc_L5K5DzDQ8-tx3gkk4YcXoj0vE3C8pvkgVRqP95UYLN9jhjz5H3v4qFG5yGLAvhFN9arKkD_vdwLSUA36pUrZjfXNDoCQ8zBlbH1J9C6rmajTtYqzzW0/s1600/Picture+21.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTfU97qabU6-gxidhyACK4PXc_L5K5DzDQ8-tx3gkk4YcXoj0vE3C8pvkgVRqP95UYLN9jhjz5H3v4qFG5yGLAvhFN9arKkD_vdwLSUA36pUrZjfXNDoCQ8zBlbH1J9C6rmajTtYqzzW0/s320/Picture+21.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5692263022781866866" /></a>ISTANBUL, January 11, 2012 -- Counterfeits of old Turkish carpets began to appear in the marketplace in the first half of the 20th century. At that time, they were usually aimed at tourists or amateur rug collectors and were easy enough for experts to detect.<br /><br />But in recent years a new, technically sophisticated production of fakes has arisen in Turkey, Iran, and the Caucasus that is so good that the new rugs pose a real danger to the antique market.<br /><br />The new techniques began to develop in the 1980s, when there was a renaissance of rug repair in Turkey and restorers became very skillful in matching colors and wool quality as they repaired old rugs. <br /><br />In order to match the colors and feel of old wool during a restoration, they moved pile knots from one part of a rug to another or even borrowed the knots from an entirely different old rug if it had an adequately long pile.<br /><br />However, rugs were not just restored this way. They were also sometimes upgraded and made to look older than the evidence their original dyes presented. <br /><br />If there was a limited amount of synthetic color in a rug, it could be completely replaced with natural colors. Once the offending colors were gone, the rug could be marketed as older and sold for more money. <br /><br />In these pictures of restored rugs, we see both chemical color replacement and antique restoration.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCDLGzyz3eW2jpNRSYebROrxduKlEbATEGXLrPT4WHcnhsi047EU1tFeoAacCIZm5tPjf_83UXgyy5tNh775bnsUydeBODpQXxQ4KeQYg3-KvygVl7g4iTryhrW3LYgio9kN41oEdkMHk/s1600/Picture+5.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCDLGzyz3eW2jpNRSYebROrxduKlEbATEGXLrPT4WHcnhsi047EU1tFeoAacCIZm5tPjf_83UXgyy5tNh775bnsUydeBODpQXxQ4KeQYg3-KvygVl7g4iTryhrW3LYgio9kN41oEdkMHk/s320/Picture+5.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5692263186512990418" /></a><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Here the restorers have taken out chemical dyed orange color knots. </span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyaEeHIJy9SFBLx9o7VardY_phKXzpwYSym_s0W0notr0hyZnv1OBnHc2r2eZOJ-6fPyccIsP2XmrAgQrUxS5e5dhjPJl6NOjjryfqficF-Jg_SYapaNb4vQMdl7BNxXmZPr_YRUGJntk/s1600/picture+6.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyaEeHIJy9SFBLx9o7VardY_phKXzpwYSym_s0W0notr0hyZnv1OBnHc2r2eZOJ-6fPyccIsP2XmrAgQrUxS5e5dhjPJl6NOjjryfqficF-Jg_SYapaNb4vQMdl7BNxXmZPr_YRUGJntk/s320/picture+6.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5692263427067846658" /></a><br /><span style="font-style:italic;"> And here the chemical orange dyed knots have been replaced with natural dyed antique madder color knots.</span> <br /><br />It wasn't long before the high prices that these restored and upgraded rugs brought in the marketplace inspired some restorers to explore methods that would allow them to weave “old” rugs from scratch. <br /><br />However, there were some technical problems to overcome. <br /><br />The primary one is that old rugs have a different look and they feel different than new rugs made from new wool. Over time, exposure to light and air softens a rug's colors, increases the shininess of the wool, and opens up the wool fiber so that an old rug has the appearance and feel of age and use.<br /><br />To obtain old wool for new "antiques", restorers turned to old kilims from Anatolia, Iran, and the Caucasus. These were pieces that were relatively inexpensive, either because they were damaged, or had very plain designs, or were originally un-dyed. <br /><br />Unraveling these kilims gives a good yield of yarns in a variety of colors. So much so, that the price of these types of kilims actually began to rise with the increased demand for them from restorers. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBaaxFXCacetEivE368F2bjY0sWGDafsp0-XIbMDVZxg8I_HnSG8_PiqtEqnCSPn7TEv_oMTKAwYlGeMhj9TKCk_jpmU7VUNFF78UYFjHGNo97ku9juBYO-eeivkG7rxnEzAdF0DPT37Y/s1600/picture+4.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 216px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBaaxFXCacetEivE368F2bjY0sWGDafsp0-XIbMDVZxg8I_HnSG8_PiqtEqnCSPn7TEv_oMTKAwYlGeMhj9TKCk_jpmU7VUNFF78UYFjHGNo97ku9juBYO-eeivkG7rxnEzAdF0DPT37Y/s320/picture+4.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5692264094001226210" /></a> <span style="font-style:italic;">Here are the unraveled yarns from old fragments.</span><br /><br />But there is a problem with getting wool from old kilims. The yarn is crimped from being squeezed for years between warp strings and has to be made to relax enough to use it again in knotting a new rug.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSrmtcTDn6mJy5IaFSaQJXtrAeypjfztZ0-UaiRtZCyhI9nxJVVkJtfKI-4nmfUSz2JZw-qUb4Tb2FlyUOS4eu-tehFNIJ07sHJ_GuBPViMtUqVcmY0kqOLCxwUuPb4w1CwcVVj2ReM3k/s1600/Picture+8.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSrmtcTDn6mJy5IaFSaQJXtrAeypjfztZ0-UaiRtZCyhI9nxJVVkJtfKI-4nmfUSz2JZw-qUb4Tb2FlyUOS4eu-tehFNIJ07sHJ_GuBPViMtUqVcmY0kqOLCxwUuPb4w1CwcVVj2ReM3k/s320/Picture+8.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5692264417684123698" /></a> <span style="font-style:italic;">Here is a close-up of the crimped yarn that comes from a vegetable dyed kilim.</span> <br /><br />Nevertheless, rug restorers always find a way to solve a problem. To relax the wool, they hit upon the idea of boiling it in a cauldron of hot water. The result is that the wool softens and loses its twist.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj2VroueuT2hdS-X6QEoXm38oGbaA6N2M4wPgoTytadDQ8BmJHxkjab3umSZfOo0HWl6dZNJbUMC45nM-TvUPmUKocIh0hpplMRfh-nselWNZk8oJtfyzlZrtlJoAVrFwrfsX4Ka-Rc-Y/s1600/Picture+9.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj2VroueuT2hdS-X6QEoXm38oGbaA6N2M4wPgoTytadDQ8BmJHxkjab3umSZfOo0HWl6dZNJbUMC45nM-TvUPmUKocIh0hpplMRfh-nselWNZk8oJtfyzlZrtlJoAVrFwrfsX4Ka-Rc-Y/s320/Picture+9.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5692264747311096146" /></a> <span style="font-style:italic;">The softened yarns after the boiling and untwisting process.</span> <br /><br />Just as there is the question of where to get old wool for weaving an antique, so is there the question of where to get an old rug foundation on which to tie the new knots. The restorers solved that problem in another clever way: they took an old rug of little value and stripped it of its original knots until only the foundation remained.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIX-eAO4-n-8cDSKZYnQjjIy_1rS4exXfX3O2sPyFpv7J7f93K9w79DFHrIL3fR3Ip7TlIp_ctQ-7DcTHIzvbboc-m2sEf9ro-alsokK266X3iNN8JoHTAWkrvR9SSBs-3NdMgGYbxZSU/s1600/Picture+10.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 209px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIX-eAO4-n-8cDSKZYnQjjIy_1rS4exXfX3O2sPyFpv7J7f93K9w79DFHrIL3fR3Ip7TlIp_ctQ-7DcTHIzvbboc-m2sEf9ro-alsokK266X3iNN8JoHTAWkrvR9SSBs-3NdMgGYbxZSU/s320/Picture+10.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5692265029600933954" /></a> <span style="font-style:italic;">Here is an Anatolian yastik that is of little vaule because of its washed-out chemical colors and not very exciting or well-executed design.</span> <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHGaru7ERdwSkLaNEWw6roWzMzy8ftEPaqb4NbPibUCWndvKkQdZ8LPqtxIw5iJp8B8FIQu0X7DXkWZKiX_6QGI7YvsIUdHk8FXXKVpHsDNs_PUx4bN_Wpy1A4NE2fJ-M0zPOzi-Pf16E/s1600/Picture+11.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 168px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHGaru7ERdwSkLaNEWw6roWzMzy8ftEPaqb4NbPibUCWndvKkQdZ8LPqtxIw5iJp8B8FIQu0X7DXkWZKiX_6QGI7YvsIUdHk8FXXKVpHsDNs_PUx4bN_Wpy1A4NE2fJ-M0zPOzi-Pf16E/s320/Picture+11.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5692265269011647746" /></a> <span style="font-style:italic;">And here is the same rug with all of the knots picked out of the foundation. </span><br /><br />We don’t know what happened to this foundation after all of the knots were picked out. But we can be sure that the new colors were vibrant and the design was well executed, to the best of the faker’s imagination.<br /><br />Finally, there is the problem of making a newly woven pile look worn and aged. <br /><br />Counterfeiters have found that rubbing the pile with a smooth pumice stone is much more convincing than clipping the blacks and browns with scissors. Whereas clipping leaves the wool with small, sharply cut ends, rubbing with pumice makes the ends of the fibers look naturally worn, even under examination with a magnifying glass.<br /><br />The rubbing helps duplicate the effect seen in old carpets, where the ingredients in black and brown dyes have caused the wool to deteriorate faster than the wool dyed with other colors.<br /><br />But there are other ways to do it, too:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVEKN6p9N1nXaRegAlmgBcDwGYPH95bbHOYPNtigQdRFoQk3KfNB_3dwIIrlSsCxTHfu5_ehVw7AnOw6f4sD3RBGfGR9oXhDZ3lavt5Xm1JTTjU2IZD7ju72ncjmE7ksdG4GBMUF8Apr8/s1600/Picture+12.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVEKN6p9N1nXaRegAlmgBcDwGYPH95bbHOYPNtigQdRFoQk3KfNB_3dwIIrlSsCxTHfu5_ehVw7AnOw6f4sD3RBGfGR9oXhDZ3lavt5Xm1JTTjU2IZD7ju72ncjmE7ksdG4GBMUF8Apr8/s320/Picture+12.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5692265511713500050" /></a> <span style="font-style:italic;">Sheep shearers being used to make the pile lower in places -- also an effective method.</span> <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvMV7Od2ZrHx2Te0t8XpTnUpCOxpOgeMesC2PNnus0wMMmcZVt6ngQ6pTE_IrndUpfXPsw3mYuFYekbsQX5pd2RLRGrBMeJaPdDLWqqD5HaBt7WfXBhW6uZC4fco58jufvKMGEEgQ8C_Y/s1600/Picture+13.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 217px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvMV7Od2ZrHx2Te0t8XpTnUpCOxpOgeMesC2PNnus0wMMmcZVt6ngQ6pTE_IrndUpfXPsw3mYuFYekbsQX5pd2RLRGrBMeJaPdDLWqqD5HaBt7WfXBhW6uZC4fco58jufvKMGEEgQ8C_Y/s320/Picture+13.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5692265889480735890" /></a> <span style="font-style:italic;">The pile can be burned with a strong flame and then rubbed and cut away to make different colors have slightly different pile heights. This is another technique to simulate natural wear and age. </span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYdmrIqEPiOAK3dfU6uWFLg-3ajdNsKnyswnwVLCcQWzf9kNFaRAEpa5f7tjrUjEGhNVoBrrkKCw9a7qNIUj4HMjz52qKB4ALOoNHgyknx86yj2v6ULh59NOP0sssu_94yH5VeG7HLFSA/s1600/Picture+14.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYdmrIqEPiOAK3dfU6uWFLg-3ajdNsKnyswnwVLCcQWzf9kNFaRAEpa5f7tjrUjEGhNVoBrrkKCw9a7qNIUj4HMjz52qKB4ALOoNHgyknx86yj2v6ULh59NOP0sssu_94yH5VeG7HLFSA/s320/Picture+14.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5692266085011602402" /></a> <span style="font-style:italic;">Dust tumblers have been used for generations in Turkey to get the dust out of rugs before they are washed. If you tumble an old rug in there for a little while, the dust comes out. If you leave a new rug in there long enough, it becomes more pliable and the edges and ends get some wear, a little bit like an old rug.</span> <br /><br />The strong summer sun of Anatolia is another great tool for aging rugs. They are left in the sun for weeks at a time in order to soften the colors. Often a rooftop is used for maximum sun exposure.<br /><br />Of course, a little light traffic on a rug is good, too, and heavier traffic is probably even better. Great spots with heavy traffic are a restaurant or even a sidewalk.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQwbW5lfoiCiW3WogbUZXdaXBg-cX0wBJKUKnK6g9zIWWc-yvZdidBgk7_BCDrDcUOHWBtnN1spIKigPOmYrFHuYregq91Lw4FNHj5hu_YzXFi4kKCokm9dWaO2AsqR_HX-Al13cA5lnw/s1600/Picture+17.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQwbW5lfoiCiW3WogbUZXdaXBg-cX0wBJKUKnK6g9zIWWc-yvZdidBgk7_BCDrDcUOHWBtnN1spIKigPOmYrFHuYregq91Lw4FNHj5hu_YzXFi4kKCokm9dWaO2AsqR_HX-Al13cA5lnw/s320/Picture+17.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5692266298851986978" /></a> <span style="font-style:italic;">Heavier traffic and busier streets have a fast effect on aging process.</span><br /><br />Once the counterfeiters work is done, all that is left to do is to admire their artistry. And, as these pictures show, the results can be stunning.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4avUmkSM06hzre0mNli-ZVN7DucLDL5-VU8rrGIpeOKDECOaye0iIP-trmGhp6joi43QD7u1lPjqQ6hS4QJn0_bLUc_wymz-JjTgniD0ZqVm3qxpw4eXGV3xo3N6qzbmohEH2EsJ9r8Y/s1600/Picture+18.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 277px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4avUmkSM06hzre0mNli-ZVN7DucLDL5-VU8rrGIpeOKDECOaye0iIP-trmGhp6joi43QD7u1lPjqQ6hS4QJn0_bLUc_wymz-JjTgniD0ZqVm3qxpw4eXGV3xo3N6qzbmohEH2EsJ9r8Y/s320/Picture+18.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5692266546829734834" /></a> <span style="font-style:italic;">Here is a great looking, all finished fake of a late 19th century southwest Iranian Gabbeh rug.</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZnRnKGABtbfV6bGqNqHtQdjS8cAHoZKGuETJbMYClzXe6qKGEivRgkEIYwWvaacFAced-vDlcPmgcFX6E-hfqQ9Z0mnf8dxVB-vc4iJIViVRJ8yfUJRJJcSdkuqRVf-hMx1Pgu_fSbAs/s1600/Picture+19.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZnRnKGABtbfV6bGqNqHtQdjS8cAHoZKGuETJbMYClzXe6qKGEivRgkEIYwWvaacFAced-vDlcPmgcFX6E-hfqQ9Z0mnf8dxVB-vc4iJIViVRJ8yfUJRJJcSdkuqRVf-hMx1Pgu_fSbAs/s320/Picture+19.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5692266719960817842" /></a> <span style="font-style:italic;">This is a counterfeit 17th century Anatolian rug.</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxtwGxTFm8xDFPB-AzR6fK0Reej59ShX8Dg0mpNjTBijWmhM0EzmYNmy1T1a4QIQDufZPjRrk199edXPBhCXbbypZrWdximaGUbp4NUmSG4N0dbhL9unwSdwoMGchqOMdbf5MLlf7DYk4/s1600/Picture+20.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 208px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxtwGxTFm8xDFPB-AzR6fK0Reej59ShX8Dg0mpNjTBijWmhM0EzmYNmy1T1a4QIQDufZPjRrk199edXPBhCXbbypZrWdximaGUbp4NUmSG4N0dbhL9unwSdwoMGchqOMdbf5MLlf7DYk4/s320/Picture+20.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5692266931446158402" /></a> <span style="font-style:italic;">Here is a counterfeited fragment which can be sold as all that remains of an 18th century Anatolian prayer rug. It is placed beside a genuine 18th century Anatolian prayer rug for comparison.</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXvjN7AOH3Y1UI_ODVu0I11sUZpdwgQrkBxJ515NlPznlsgrPwf16haTdPDS2PvzRytoAdP0haq0R0Gk9sJq2Z_v9yvkaVA5rUa2zh9fRPti9xGXxqWuoBdUymn_wIE043NneABSvwKtw/s1600/Picture+21.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXvjN7AOH3Y1UI_ODVu0I11sUZpdwgQrkBxJ515NlPznlsgrPwf16haTdPDS2PvzRytoAdP0haq0R0Gk9sJq2Z_v9yvkaVA5rUa2zh9fRPti9xGXxqWuoBdUymn_wIE043NneABSvwKtw/s320/Picture+21.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5692267087243936578" /></a> <span style="font-style:italic;">And here is a very fine forgery of an antique flat-weave sumac with a Laila & Majnun design from the epic Islamic love poem of the same name.</span><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBkcyMpyKRPRVz12AGl_D3amXGDlYDyR1JsdCHEYDvQetKGLu-i4apnbdICdBHO5OAqgmfBxSnQMrQFGMM_VlBPPRgcMaWeW3fx1Hmb-7HSmAF3tAWjpNz9mxtaN_OdH7UO_dyACQZndM/s1600/layla+and+majnun+original.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 203px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBkcyMpyKRPRVz12AGl_D3amXGDlYDyR1JsdCHEYDvQetKGLu-i4apnbdICdBHO5OAqgmfBxSnQMrQFGMM_VlBPPRgcMaWeW3fx1Hmb-7HSmAF3tAWjpNz9mxtaN_OdH7UO_dyACQZndM/s320/layla+and+majnun+original.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5705675536593939794" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;">The forgery is of this genuine antique Layla & Majnun piece, which is worn with true age.</span><br /><br />Are there ways that true antique rug lovers can protect themselves from the forgers' ever increasing skills?<br /><br />One of the best keys may be training ourselves to recognize the lanolin content in the wool fibres. <br /><br />A sheep's natural wool is naturally coated in lanolin, a substance which prevents the wool fibers from locking together. The amount of lanolin in the wool diminishes as a rug ages over decades and centuries but it is not easy for forgers to reduce it artificially.<br /><br />It is not that difficult to see the differences in the wool with a close up examination or by feeling the wool with your palm and the tips of your fingers. <br /><br />Train your hands and palm by touching as many pieces as you possibly can. You will develop a feel for it. Study your own pieces with magnifiers. You will see how real wool fibers look with natural use. <br /><br />Another good safeguard against forgeries is to trust your instincts and your taste. <br /><br />Fakers often make aesthetic mistakes. They sometimes put fake repairs into the flat woven ends of rugs so that you will easily spot the fake repair but not realize that the whole rug is newly woven. <br /><br />If you sense your eye is being deliberately distracted, there's a good chance it is. <br /><br />Faking old rugs is not just an Anatolian phenomenon. Many other weaving areas have followed the Turkish lead. Convincing copies of old Gabbeh rugs come from Iran, as do fake Shahsevan flatweaves. <br /><br />And just as the rug business is a cross-border industry, the counterfeiting business has become one, too. <br /><br />Iranian dealers have employed Turkmen weavers in Afghanistan to copy anqique Turkmen pieces, while Anatolian traders have financed the faking of antique Caucasian rugs in the Caucasus and of Kaitag embroideries in Daghestan. Even, India is on the same path with their famous Muhgal and local design embroideries.<br /><br />It is interesting to think that if the last century had its legendary Theodor Tuduc (1888 – 1983), the Romanian carpet forger whose work was so good it was collected by museums, this century may produce yet greater counterfeit artists. The sophistication of techniques available to forgers only keeps growing and with it so does the challenge of separating genuine antiques from look-alikes. <br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Vedat Karadag heads <span style="font-weight:bold;"><a href="http://www.culturaltravels.com/">Cultural Travel</a></span>, an Istanbul-based company specializing in custom-designed travel for small groups or individuals interested in exploring Anatolia or the Silk Road countries of Central Asia. Textiles are one of his many areas of interest and expertise. </span><br /><br />#<br /><br /><a href="http://tea-and-carpets.blogspot.com/">RETURN TO HOME</a><br /><br />#Tea and Carpetshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06607321259227169325noreply@blogger.com54tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804437195679232310.post-21191233948922333552011-12-17T05:07:00.000-08:002011-12-28T08:09:33.031-08:00Turkmen Carpets: From Bukhara To The Black Desert<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href=" http://www.jamescohencarpets.com/antique-carpets?pcat=9"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJZykJWyqLdO6Po-03IEWZrHkmJNymS5SMTnj8eJX6W5rxGONocCLp-9xoGcdQiFsIyx2wmJKZOY4CokkgDNbt1BiQHT8tDrz5DiDC84HvzudZ_8JqoiUekS1Ks5zyq-TmNM4V6UAtaz0/s320/James+Cohen+Kepsi.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5687086585147150546" /></a>BUKHARA, Dec. 17, 2011 – When the "red rugs of Central Asia" first arrived in Western Europe in the mid-to-late 1800s, nobody knew much about where they came from.<br /><br />They trickled out through the Russian Empire and bore an exotic name: Bokhara carpets. But apart from the fact Bokhara (today Bukhara in Uzbekistan) was a legendary city on the Silk Road, the name gave no hints of the rugs' origins.<br /><br />Another name commonly used in Victorian England for the carpets told even less: "Gentlemen's Carpets." They were called that because they particularly appealed to men as furnishings for dens and studies. <br /><br />It took until our present day before people widely realized that the red rugs' only relation with Bukhara was that the city's bazaars were the collection point for sending them to Western markets. And that, in fact, the carpets were woven by a specific people that mostly live far away from Bukhara: the Turkmen.<br /><br />The Turkmen who sent their carpets to the bazaar inhabit a vast expanse of arid land between the Amu Darya river and the Caspian Sea that mostly is made up of the Kara Kum Desert, or "Black Sand" Desert. Today, much of that land is the country of Turkmenistan, but there are also populations of Turkmen living across the borders of Iran and Afghanistan. <br /><br />Traditionally, the Turkmen were both a nomadic and settled people, largely depending on how much water was available. They wove everything needed for a nomadic lifestyle but also wove many of the same items when residing in towns and villages.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUfR5UOG6x-m6LfF6lxiMM7ONPiBqA8hA7ZkqsMmasjn0R1HoEdZ41sNuvopti1v3MiSyg8U5h5xd4fYfQzGelVgDFKyvoeK-f4zbldzLv361ZWGCNb7a0YrOGaP9KEqhK95lX_0BPAbg/s1600/Turkmen+family.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 271px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUfR5UOG6x-m6LfF6lxiMM7ONPiBqA8hA7ZkqsMmasjn0R1HoEdZ41sNuvopti1v3MiSyg8U5h5xd4fYfQzGelVgDFKyvoeK-f4zbldzLv361ZWGCNb7a0YrOGaP9KEqhK95lX_0BPAbg/s320/Turkmen+family.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5687086439219016194" /></a>Here is a picture of a nomadic Turkmen family posing on a carpet outside their felt yurt. It was taken by the Russian photographer Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky in the early 1900s when Turkmenistan was part of the Russian Empire. <br /><br />When the Turkmen arrived in the region is uncertain, but they were part of a vast migration of Turkic peoples who moved into the Caspian area, northern Iran and Anatolia around 1,000 AD. Their language belongs to the same family of languages – Oghuz Turk – as those spoken in Turkey, Azerbaijan, and by the Turkic tribes of Iran.<br /><br />It is often said that to like Turkmen carpets, one must like the color red. And that is true. Early Turkmen carpets are all dyed in shades of red taken from the madder plant and the shades vary from brick-colored to a dark purple brown. Usually, the other color in the carpets is black.<br /><br />But if this traditional color palette seems limited, the effects achieved are both striking and subtle. And part of the reason is that the colors heighten, rather than compete with, the carpets' decorative pattern of mysterious tribal "guls."<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href=" http://www.knightsantiques.co.uk/stock.asp?t=category&c=Antique%20Turkmen%20Rugs"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikBo23KmpVEKy753XMzTrMJWe75HZY880j7_7F-YSdjAWQLMH9DEVIl7cu6gQkfCg-HjN5EiKuz82rk0KVzI7UG7WAe3TvEyYYk5nCGGHzvr3_-edFtmTO-BpIIkyx_PLAEzWZrPLEBD0/s320/KnightsAntiques+Tekke.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5687086302785754482" /></a>The guls, the Persian and Turkmen word for flower, are usually octagonal forms that are quartered and placed in rows. Often a large gul will alternate with a subsidiary one, as in this photo of guls in a main carpet woven by the Tekke tribe.<br /><br />Here the main gul is a variation of a type of gul known as a "gulli (or gushly) gul." The capet is available from <span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://www.knightsantiques.co.uk/">Knights Antiques</a></span></span> in Britain. <br /><br />The world of Turkmen carpets is a world of guls and guls themselves are part of the common artistic heritage of the Silk Roads. Historically, guls (known as "rosettes" is Western art history) are found in silk fabrics made by civilizations up and down the length of the road, from the Chinese to the Soghdians, to the Sassanians to the Byzantines.<br /><br />But just what the Turkmen guls represent is not certain. <br /><br />According to the Turkmen themselves, they symbolize birds or parts of birds. But the way some guls are used more than others by different Turkmen tribes has long created a debate among Western rug experts over whether they also serve as identifying totems for the tribes that weave them. Research is still needed to answer the question.<br /><br />Often, Turkmen carpets include both large guls and subsidiary guls arranged in an endless repeat pattern. The arrangement creates an optical illusion in which the eye connects the large guls into one pattern of compartments and the small guls into another, so the two patterns appear to be overlying.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href=" http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/antique-rugs/yamout/"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 186px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF3-WWaGEtI4UrfsU0ek7Q4oduwsk0FqyCP74R1DUo3HcUyRtoSmKhAelsDgw0RHsk3CUUMXjFeN5vunRpi3tAhegeVP6-1pm29DbVolCjd2e1p-E1OJkULPOz_-vRCNDfPf2Q89DLjNo/s320/Nazmiyal+Yomut+Tauk+Nuska.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5687086089765540306" /></a>The "double-compartment" pattern is visible in this carpet woven by the Yomut tribe. The large guls are variation of a type of gul known as a "tauk nuska gul." The capet is available from the <span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/">Nazmiyal Collection</a></span></span> in New York. <br /><br />The double-compartment pattern may be another fascinating link between Turkmen carpets and the ancient Silk Road trading routes. The design, using various kinds of elements, has been found across the ancient world, from Chinese textiles to ceiling drawings in Egyptian tombs. <br /><br />Today, Turkmen carpets are well known to rug collectors and the early generic names like "Bokhara" are less and less used. But finding a new way to name them has proved difficult because, unlike most rugs, they cannot be reliably named after specific geographical regions where they were woven.<br /><br />Turkmen tribes were historically so mobile -- claiming and abandoning territories as their neighbor's lost or gained strength -- that it makes more sense to name the carpets after the tribes which wove them rather than the tribe's location at the time. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjst9FvHcO48YB_6fn89HZtA9UVOIjdIKSKTLU5YQRGEZdemBRrS3ApvZnwUwvad4qb7CD2N3gc68Wys9fTWKRDFFC4J06DWiKny3fjZErlSS1SaslE52jBFWfIZCaznzFPnRzMFZdUqYQ/s1600/Central+Asia.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 230px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjst9FvHcO48YB_6fn89HZtA9UVOIjdIKSKTLU5YQRGEZdemBRrS3ApvZnwUwvad4qb7CD2N3gc68Wys9fTWKRDFFC4J06DWiKny3fjZErlSS1SaslE52jBFWfIZCaznzFPnRzMFZdUqYQ/s320/Central+Asia.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5687085940196100402" /></a>Here is a map of Central Asia showing the Turkmen's homeland, which includes parts of northeastern Iran and northwestern Afghanistan.<br /><br />The effects of the Turkmen's mobility can be seen in some of the tribes' rugs. The guls of the Yomut (or Yomud) tribe which had long contact with Persia (and which mostly lives in northeastern Iran today) are believed to show adaptations of complex Persian floral forms. <br /><br />An example can be seen in the photo at the top of this page of a Yomut carpet with kepsi guls. The carpet is available from <span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://www.jamescohencarpets.com/">James Cohen</a></span></span> in Milan. <br /><br />Over the centuries, as more and more Tukmen moved from nomadism to settled life, the carpets of the tribes which settled underwent more changes than those which stayed nomadic. <br /><br />One of the earliest tribes to settle appears to have been the Chodor. The designs of main their carpets more varied than those of the other tribes and use more colors. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href=" http://www.joshualumley.com/rugs_page1.htm"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkoaaYbOjm0GtHQ-cp3ek1oUbeDbH6q9HLa-gs0YV35RgVHMD79Lx24w_aBPcVsJBawKd0uOSmjSi9anYWGoYjt4TIBnkbY8upy1oL1yP94IvmV0NsoZaHE46SmcYsskMf4AbogT2Fboo/s320/Josua+Lumley+Chodor.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5687085787618250834" /></a>Here is an example of a Chodor carpet with ertmen guls. It is available from <span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://www.joshualumley.com/index.html">Joshua Lumley</a></span></span> near London. <br /><br />In the case of many nomadic groups elsewhere in the world, settling has meant a loss of weaving traditions. <br /><br />But in the Turkmen case, settled women maintained their weaving traditions as a way to supplement their family income. Over time the volume of rugs they produced far outpaced those woven by their nomadic sisters. <br /><br />Thus the rugs of the Saryk, which remained nomadic longer than any other Turkmen tribe, until the end of the 19th century, are considerably rarer than those of other groups.<br /><br />Another tribe whose rugs are rare is the Salor – but for a different reason. The Salor, long considered among the oldest of the Turkmen tribes, disappeared at some time in the 19th century, leaving behind their weavings as their only legacy. <br /><br />At what point the weavings of settled Turkmen tribe turned into a major regional business sensitive to the changing tastes of buyers is unclear. <br /><br />But by the time the traditional red rugs came to the attention of Western enthusiasts, there was already production of another class of Turkmen carpets – not traditional at all – which were aimed at the sophisticated tastes of urban centers such as Bukhara, Samarkand, and far beyond.<br /><br />These rugs were the so-called "Beshir" carpets, named not after a tribe but one of the towns where they were woven along the Amu Darya river, which flows between Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href=" http://www.knightsantiques.co.uk/stock.asp?t=category&c=Antique%20Turkmen%20Rugs"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 228px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4CUyFST86NLWHS7Uo4hDD7oPCmZwlwmxzcjFy6aclOtEY7wSGoV9SNOhsh2I2zxocyIM5Pdwzaa7wWypX5JxqQEW3OjdI3RFk9T4xK_SfQ10-UYVhCXqACEPpVMUEvBhuSNamh5YRaKs/s320/Knights+Antiques+Beshir.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5687085622382717266" /></a>Here is a Beshir carpet available from <span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://www.knightsantiques.co.uk/">Knights Antiques</a></span></span> in Britain. Some other Beshir carpets show the influence of popular ikat designs taken from Central Asia's vibrant textile industry of the same time.<br /><br />Exactly who wove the Beshir carpets is unclear, because historically these towns were home to a mixed population of Turkmens from different tribes and even indigenous Iranian people who pre-dated the Turkic conquest of Central Asia.<br /><br />But if Beshir carpets show how Turkmen weavers could adapt to market tastes, the more remarkable thing about Turkmen carpets overall remains how much they have remained true to tradition over the centuries. <br /><br />An example among many are the carpets woven the Ersari tribe, which has been mostly sedentary since 17th c. Their large carpets are too big for a yurt, so they were clearly made for urban buyers, but their designs stayed traditional. <br /><br />As experts Robert Pinner and Murray L. Eiland, Jr. note in their 1999 book 'Between the Black Desert and the Red: Turkmen Carpets from the Widersperg Collection':<br /><br />"The same gols have been used from the pre-commercial into the commercial period and the designs have changed little … The number of colors has tended to decline from the six or nine colors used in earlier rugs to sometimes only three or four in later rugs, (but) the guls will be drawn in a strikingly similar manner."<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href=" http://www.nomadrugs.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 212px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiamx7wAhcgANh7AQkynNNrVQZurWOhMk7uHgthVuWMWD8k9iJttzDmmjZhusn8VoZtuhGQwVN1CxsJX8KyaESt29oMGVXNwmbmDChEK4eKzZC83bCZaMjNYHHp1mMRTDLpNReCs9a_cCY/s320/Ersari+Nomad.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5687085442116652226" /></a>Here is modern Ersari carpet with another of the many variations of the gulli gul. It is available from <span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://www.nomadrugs.com/">Nomad Rugs</a></span></span> in San Francisco.<br /><br />Traditionally, Turkmen weavers not only produced main carpets for the floors of yurts but also carpet-like hangings to cover the yurt doorway (ensi), bags of different types and sizes for storage and transport (chuvals and torbas), decorative trappings used in wedding rituals (azmylik), tent bands and tent pole covers. Many of these smaller weavings show more variations in design than do the carpets.<br /><br />Perhaps due to this variety, Turkmen weavings of all kinds are today highly popular with collectors. According to Pinner and Eiland, there are more Turkmen weavings in private rug collections in the US and Germany – the two countries with the largest number of private rug collections in the world -- than rugs from anywhere else.<br /><br />That's a long way for Turkmen rugs to have traveled from the days when they were simply all lumped together on Western markets as Red Rugs, Bokharas, or Gentlemen's Carpets. <br /><br />And it is a tribute to the weavers' skills that today their work has not just put the Turkmen people on the world's art map, but even the names of their own individual tribes.<br /><br /># <br /><br /><a href="http://tea-and-carpets.blogspot.com/">RETURN TO HOME</a><br /><br />#<br /><br />Links:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.badragh.blogfa.com/87022.aspx">Articles about Turkmen Rugs, Designs, History, and Tribes</a>Tea and Carpetshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06607321259227169325noreply@blogger.com55tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804437195679232310.post-4553647449686869832011-11-26T06:09:00.000-08:002011-11-27T12:56:00.557-08:00Persia's Signature Carpets Of The Late 19th, Early 20th Centuries<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/antique-rugs/?sku=3206&style_id=&origin_id=&minw=1&maxw=30&minl=1&maxl=40&x=0&y=0&customsearch=true"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 232px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPAanhqONVSZIJb01DL1WeU5VWJ-hVZ00H-v2kJNhUWGeLyBE6AGL9EqW1IwSaamx1sayqOGpKNtrz1p1vZ_aSgRbMzhyphenhyphen6OlQqnTQLQICDcgOsnZ9eUm82pyIxl2AUGIEQKYNGUZQu7v4/s320/Persepolis.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5679307558653442658" /></a>TEHRAN, Nov. 26, 2011 – If there is a gold standard for Persian carpets produced at the turn of the last century, it is the magnificent rugs woven and signed by master artists working in small studios.<br /><br />These signature rugs remain legendary today, as do the names of the "ustads", or master weavers, who designed them. <br /><br />Just five of the best known master weavers are:<br /><br />Mohammad Hassan Mohtashem, working in Kashan in the late 1800s.<br /><br />Aboul Ghasem Kermani, in Kerman at the turn of the last century. <br /><br />Hajji Jalili, in Tabriz at the turn of the last century.<br /><br />Fatollah Habibian, in Nain in the early to mid 1900s.<br /><br />Agha Reza Seyrafian (or Seirafian), in Isfahan in the early to mid 1900s.<br /><br />These masters, and the workshops they led, were so innovative in reworking traditional designs, devising new ones, and playing with color palettes that they were the recognized trend setters of their time. <br /><br />Their work can be stunningly beautiful.<br /><br />At the top of this page is a signed carpet by Aboul Ghasem Kermani. It is a hymn to ancient Persian history that depicts in astonishing detail the ruins of Persepolis, the 5th century BC palace of Darius I and Xerxes. The carpet is available from the <span style="font-style:italic;"><span style="font-weight:bold;"><a href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/">Nazmiyal Collection</a></span></span> of New York.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/antique-rugs/?sku=3416&style_id=&origin_id=&minw=1&maxw=30&minl=1&maxl=40&x=0&y=0&customsearch=true"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 267px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggByilArP2eUTeDNnwNsLoi0Az3FxMQsDguzzaocSQ8ejfeTevstv-0egE8liVQUvJhKoN0udMZi4X78CbcKuZO91xLgVkZiN41e-6ZiQUZrF2JyUOpSDi7Ro-iJaaCoaXrhsxdGU9jJY/s320/Floral+Kermani.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5679307777705874386" /></a>Here is another signed carpet by Aboul Ghasem Kermani. This one shows the designer's ability to work equally well with floral patterns. It, too, is available from the <span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/">Nazmiyal Collection</a></span></span> in New York.<br /><br />The carpets of these master weavers have been copied so many times since their deaths that the weavers' names have become generic today for whole types of carpets based on their designs. <br /><br />But the masters' original works have never been equaled and may well never be. That is because they are the product of a historical moment when Persia's carpet industry was reviving rapidly after centuries of neglect and the spirit of a renaissance was in the air.<br /><br />The carpet industry had suffered badly during the period of political upheavals that wracked Persia in the 1700s and early 1800s and by the time stability returned many things had changed dramatically. <br /><br />The royal court system, long the patron for the best arts, was severely weakened and economic power was increasingly passing into the hands of wealthy merchant families. They, and customers in Europe where Orientalism was by now in full swing, became a rich new market for Persian carpet producers who competed fiercely to win it.<br /><br />The result was the birth of the modern workshop system of carpet production, the system which remains the basis for most oriental rug production today. Unlike the large court-supported workshops of the past, these new ateliers had to be smaller to be commercially successful. And whereas the court workshops had valued tradition above all, now there was increasing room for innovation, as well. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/antique-rugs/?sku=45252&style_id=&origin_id=&minw=1&maxw=30&minl=1&maxl=40&x=0&y=0&customsearch=true"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 188px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVbkzy3leBzXhUEIFbY-6LbbgJtq9gL2EgHnGtbYTHrxiUD40p79Bran4M-AyBM1RlBTHlbpegAzlbC5sMY-ZjOwdOEu9CBpDjCj2ELPvg-gzubyzTxLvT124Xri3P4J3G17__pmVP0Dw/s320/Seyrafian.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5679307918974796082" /></a>Here is a carpet by the master weaver Seyrafian available from the <span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/">Nazmiyal Collection</a></span></span> in New York.<br /><br />The best workshops of the late 19th century and early 20th century in Persia functioned much like artists' studios. <br /><br />The masters were sought after by the wealthiest customers, who commissioned rugs and paid in advance. The advance payment, in turn, provided the capital for the master weavers to obtain the best materials and hire highly skilled artisans. <br /><br />Just how much status the customers accorded the master weavers was shown by the practice of signing the master's name into the rugs as they were woven – something virtually unknown under the court patronage system. The date the carpet was woven was also sometimes included.<br /><br />Over the decades from the late 1800s to the mid-1900s, the master weavers brought new fame to many of Iran's traditional weaving centers. At times, they were directly associated with the successful revival of an individual city's weaving industry after it had slumped drastically during the previous centuries.<br /><br />The master weaver Mohtashem is one example. He began work in Kashan around the 1880s at a time when the city's carpet weavers had long ago switched to making shawls. But even as he succeeded in the textile business, he could see it would soon collapse under the pressure of the new machine-produced textiles flooding in from Europe.<br /> <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/antique-rugs/?sku=44806&style_id=&origin_id=&minw=1&maxw=30&minl=1&maxl=40&x=0&y=0&customsearch=true"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 220px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGmwoKa6fbt49Xiul9uFDNtePEP3uQ04dX4dcxK2062owNiL7iMx4g3tyiqiNG2i404-p8Ffd9NcSOs-6xbfcmwy1XhXTXhfmOg9SNMwOzPXACA83s4Dwh682F1esZQ2S8l2ywkF9WL6s/s320/Mohtashem.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5679308104658861410" /></a>Here is a carpet by the master weaver Mohtashem available from the <span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/">Nazmiyal Collection</a></span></span> in New York.<br /><br />According to legend, Mohtashem re-invented himself, and the city's carpet industry, when he married a woman from another famous carpet center, Sultanabad, who was a skilled rug weaver. <br /><br />He provided her with Merino wool imported from Manchester – the wool he usually used for textiles – and discovered its high quality allowed a higher knot count for creating detailed motifs with a high pile.<br /><br />The revival of Kashan's carpet industry, which had been dormant since the fall of the Safavid dynasty in 1723, quickly followed. <br /><br />In 1890, records show, there were only three operating looms in Kashan. By 1900, there were 1,500 and by 1949 there were 4,000. Fueling most of the growth was Mohtashem's innovation – the use of Merino wool – which continued until the imported wool market crashed with the Great Depression.<br /><br />Ultimately, Mohtashem's innovation was so successful that his own name became the generic name for all the Kashan carpets woven with Merino wool, which sometimes were also known as "Manchester Kashans." Only the fact that some of Mohtashem's own signed carpets remain helps to preserve the memory of the man himself, about whom little more is known.<br /><br />A similar revival took place in Nain and is attributed to another of the master weavers, Habibian. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/antique-rugs/?sku=43604&style_id=&origin_id=&minw=1&maxw=30&minl=1&maxl=40&x=0&y=0&customsearch=true"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 243px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit5I6VRWLqAYwL_fKqW8gY8R8Ozc3ksGQcOhgRdMCr9a4vNLXjL9LSiQdxizICkYfgIvotVDWt_SjvaQvnkF61UjASoGn5PTzMrf973HWryFV9T5xlLjqWyNgagLBo2zOneNpu2cWRGO8/s320/Nain.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5679308749647821746" /></a>Here is an example of a Nain carpet available from the <span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/">Nazmiyal Collection</a></span></span> in New York.<br /><br />Legend has it that Habibian was the son of the owner of a textile workshop producing abas, a woolen outer garment that usually is striped. <br /><br />When the market for abas collapsed because clothing fashions were becoming more European in the early 1900s, Habibian switched full time to carpets along with his brother Mohammad. <br /><br />The Habibians helped turned Nain, which previously had no history as a carpet center, into a city with a reputation for exceptionally fine pieces. Both the Habibian brothers lived and worked in Nain for decades before Mohammad died in 1986 and Fatollah in 1994.<br /><br />Most of the Habibians' rugs bear their names but that is not the case for all master weavers. In many cases, just a few signed rugs remain and in others cases they are so rare that experts wonder whether some legendary names actually refer to a style rather than to an individual master and his workshop.<br /><br />Hadji Jalili is one such example. The name is routinely used in the rug business to describe the beautiful floral rugs woven in Tabriz at the end of the 19th century. It also is believed to refer to a particular designer whose success in developing a trademark mix of lighter colors of pinks, gold and grays that helped rouse the famous weaving city from a long period of dormancy. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/antique-rugs/?sku=44645&style_id=&origin_id=&minw=1&maxw=30&minl=1&maxl=40&x=0&y=0&customsearch=true"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 219px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdZUN2OLIS4x_qaegb1rgC8hbxnwdpsmqL6EQ0ahdluPgEQEWSsez1h8Hnl0GeekEeEfqFSvoSm6YNSLqetIICoWpQ1ix3y2AIs2ZsSyCrMysEi6gBlrB2hqioOuM-TggKjJe2ipFG8b8/s320/Jalili.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5679309015468935458" /></a>Here is a Hadji Jalili carpet available from the <span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/">Nazmiyal Collection</a></span></span> in New York.<br /><br />Yet so many of the best Tabriz carpets have since been attributed to Hadji Jalili that they could not possibly all have been woven by a single master's atelier.<br /><br />So, how should one regard the name Hadji Jalili? <br /><br />Jason Nazmiyal, whose Nazmiyal Collection deals in antique rugs, says there are two possibilities.<br /><br />When a master weaver has signed a carpet, then the signature offers clear documentation that the master existed and that the rug originated in his atelier.<br /><br />But when this documentation provided by a signature does not exist, Nazmiyal says, it may make better sense to think of a master's name as the name of a period of weaving rather than just one person.<br /><br />"The masters were trendsetters and the look they developed was what everyone was following, the customers and the other weavers," he notes. "They were like top fashion designers today and their impact was far bigger than what they alone produced."<br /><br />Looking at it that way recognizes that – many decades later – it is not always possible to distinguish designers from the fashions they create and those they inspire. The mystery of who exactly Hadji Jalili was may never be solved, but the beauty of the work attributed to him will never be forgotten.<br /><br /># <br /><br /><a href="http://tea-and-carpets.blogspot.com/">RETURN TO HOME</a><br /><br />#Tea and Carpetshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06607321259227169325noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804437195679232310.post-17569037572634124072011-10-15T04:20:00.000-07:002011-10-22T04:40:05.325-07:00The Baroque Era: When Europe Fell Out Of Love With Oriental Carpets<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href=" http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/antique-rugs/savonnerie/"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 234px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1YSsMUhkqdvKpXjOyqXOHj-gPJUDo_ONPq2NuG-2l1FOWckTI6UaWIJ7-REiWMs3KkH6Rx47cksEr937OGMe2KnY5XPaOoyFwgwUAfSqX6-slB74vUnJIUk2bhMRUV0yKmQzVnM2jtlE/s320/Antique_Savonnerie_European_Rug_32341.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5663679682254373506" /></a>PARIS, October 22, 2011 – It is a strange thing that during Europe's long love affair with oriental carpets, the love once cooled for almost a hundred years. <br /><br />That period roughly corresponds to Europe's Baroque era when, instead of importing oriental carpets as they had for centuries, European nobility began buying European-made carpets instead.<br /> <br />Those carpets, like the Savonnerie carpet shown here, looked nothing like the Turkish and Persian styles depicted in the Renaissance paintings of earlier generations. Rather, they were specifically woven in Europe beginning around 1644 to compliment the new baroque architecture of European palaces and mansions. <br /><br />In fact, the new European carpets did not just compliment baroque architecture, they often directly imitated baroque ceiling designs. That enabled Europe's designers to do what they had never done so lavishly before: swaddle the wealthy in a single style of interior decoration from head to foot. <br /><br />The single style – Baroque and its spin-off Rococo - conveyed power and opulence and corresponded with Europe's own rising sense of economic wealth and importance.<br /><br />Still, if the development of French-made Savonnerie and Aubusson carpets, or similar Axminster and Wilton carpets in Britain, suggests that Europeans somehow entirely lost interest in Eastern designs at this time, the impression would be wrong. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1FPGs-xBKMP0DgbKwsV2WSD1ahGMdrzi10zmJA9oJpcky1Fh75PzJOo4ve_zASly6mKvx9xPPq-zZnrENCnkYni8mBKvPsq24mwZe4rYdUMy81Gej50Y_mAO9PQq-mldNoUbiuF667d0/s1600/M.+Theresa+with+mask.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 254px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1FPGs-xBKMP0DgbKwsV2WSD1ahGMdrzi10zmJA9oJpcky1Fh75PzJOo4ve_zASly6mKvx9xPPq-zZnrENCnkYni8mBKvPsq24mwZe4rYdUMy81Gej50Y_mAO9PQq-mldNoUbiuF667d0/s320/M.+Theresa+with+mask.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5663679536641847682" /></a>Ironically, the Baroque Era in which Europeans lost interest in Oriental rugs coincides with what was Europe's greatest ever period of fascination with all things Turkish. That fascination was so widespread that it had a name: <span style="font-style:italic;">Turquerie.</span><br /><br />Here is a portrait of Austro-Hungarian Empress Maria Theresa at the height of the Turquerie fad which swept Europe in the 1600s and 1700s. She is dressed in a Turkish costume and is holding a mask. It was painted circa 1744 by Martin van Meytens.<br /><br />How the Turquerie fad took shape and why it did not include rugs is one of the stranger stories in carpet history. After all, Turquerie – the French-coined word for Europe's taste for Turkish styles – could be found in many other arts: from dress, to fabrics, to interiors, to porcelain. <br /><br />To understand Turquerie – which was a precursor of, but quite different from, Orientalism – one has to return to Europe of the 1600s. It was a time when Europe's relations with the Ottoman Empire changed dramatically.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXC5FCj8WycRlNE1Z8sVRuE4eddNa8o6HFSTH_f3QjYA2FrG_FOyjt3iO073SOFqrJPByf6ML0UpAdErmmCVJk2fIMCxQuLBBRSvPxE-gZKkXUZ941ijCGbe24muW1WTYix5eI3r3dHo4/s1600/Ottoman+Empire+map.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXC5FCj8WycRlNE1Z8sVRuE4eddNa8o6HFSTH_f3QjYA2FrG_FOyjt3iO073SOFqrJPByf6ML0UpAdErmmCVJk2fIMCxQuLBBRSvPxE-gZKkXUZ941ijCGbe24muW1WTYix5eI3r3dHo4/s320/Ottoman+Empire+map.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5663679416504630434" /></a>Prior to the the mid-1600s, the Ottoman Empire had been Europe's most feared neighbor. The Empire had grown with astonishing speed from its start two centuries earlier and directly annexed much of Eastern Europe, including Greece.<br /><br />But by the mid-1600s, the Ottoman's power to expand deeper into Europe was clearly spent. The Empire's second attempt to take Vienna with a 60 day siege in 1683 ended in a disastrous route and, though Eastern Europe would remain under the Ottomans almost another two centuries years, fear of the Empire in the rest of Europe subsided.<br /><br />Instead, Western Europeans suddenly became very interested in the art and lifestyle of the foe they no longer feared. To dress up for palace balls "alla Turca" became the rage. And the practice of drinking coffee – something that had previously reached only Venice from Istanbul -- suddenly spread across Europe.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinOBEX2R75TLMtYqP3IvFK1a-l8vMfUZJlXA0ffuagTCWpVXJ4fc4uePy3KnSNICZnSOlXCCkFFyggNtgwbze0rvU8lrQaUpSW-BoI1WNLB8dMHnOFX2BQNquklf44pgZmjca3qiNOncw/s1600/THE+BLUE+BOTTLE+VIENNA.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 230px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinOBEX2R75TLMtYqP3IvFK1a-l8vMfUZJlXA0ffuagTCWpVXJ4fc4uePy3KnSNICZnSOlXCCkFFyggNtgwbze0rvU8lrQaUpSW-BoI1WNLB8dMHnOFX2BQNquklf44pgZmjca3qiNOncw/s320/THE+BLUE+BOTTLE+VIENNA.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5663679138833245074" /></a>In Vienna, one of the first cafes was the House under The Blue Bottle, which opened in 1686. Its origins, just three years after the Ottoman siege of the city, perfectly illustrates the new fascination with the East.<br /><br />The Blue Bottle's proprietor, Georg Franz Kolschitzky, had lived in Istanbul as a young man and learned Turkish. During the siege he used his language skills to spy on the Ottoman camp. Legend says that afterwards he claimed the coffee beans the Turks left behind as his share of the war booty and used them to start his business. For decades, he ran his café dressed as an Ottoman cafe owner, as this painting from the time shows.<br /><br />Like any fad, Turquerie was a mix of reality and fantasy. It came when still very few Europeans traveled to the East and it was heavily influenced by Europeans' own imaginary visions of oriental luxury, Ottoman customs, and even harems. <br /><br />But even if Turquerie was in large part make-believe, there is no doubt that genuine curiosity about -- and even admiration of the Ottoman Empire – was equally part of it.<br /><br />When one of the most famous, and large-scale, weddings of the time took place in Dresden in 1719, the celebration included days of specially themed events. <br /><br />On one of those days, the newlyweds (the Prince-elector of Saxony, Friedrich August II, and the Austrian Archduchess Maria Josepha) had a palace in ‘Turkish style’ erected complete with a corps of janissaries. The guests, who included an Ottoman ambassador, were requested to appear in Turkish costume.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqC2_wpOG5TPCXBZmRmnJPXasMquf63_d8FfKY3HdnnZi-vRla47XVwVItarGpzYWvhs8bwcYpq4NEab35VbNm46anLNblQTERSf1d0mw03YxkR-QDmF-fu2wdhyOJVmvtBtrXl5U9E1M/s1600/Mlle+de+Clermont+en+Sultane.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 306px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqC2_wpOG5TPCXBZmRmnJPXasMquf63_d8FfKY3HdnnZi-vRla47XVwVItarGpzYWvhs8bwcYpq4NEab35VbNm46anLNblQTERSf1d0mw03YxkR-QDmF-fu2wdhyOJVmvtBtrXl5U9E1M/s320/Mlle+de+Clermont+en+Sultane.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5663678961434204898" /></a>Similarly, it became the rage for noble women to have their portraits painted wearing a Turkish costume and in an Oriental setting, sometimes even sitting on an oriental carpet. <br /><br />Here is one portrait from the time, Mademoiselle de Clermont "en Sultane" painted in 1733 by Jean-Marc Nattier.<br /><br />A much more famous sitter, the Marquise de Pompadour, commissioned three portraits of herself dressed as a Sultana in 1750. The portraits not only allowed the sitters to appear in exotic fashions but also to abandon their body-constricting corsets -- something that would not become possible again in Western fashion until the 1900s. <br /><br />Men also took part. In the 1700s, it was in fashion for wealthy men to smoke Turkish tobacco in a Turkish pipe, sometimes wearing a Turkish robe. And when people went out to the opera, it was possible to find Turquerie there, too.<br /><br />The most famous of the Turquerie operas – still played today – is Mozart's 'The Abduction from the Seraglio'. It was first presented in 1782, but 13 other similarly themed operas predate it. Often the productions clothed the singers in authentic Ottoman fashions, knowing that theater goers were curious about them.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLhyphenhyphenjrBN5_75a0sF0I1F4bdvjVsFFuJRzaHI4TEKVvCyXdx438k-BvdtW61HDU6oVGdx-e-acI7IUI8q3mlgNaJqtQb9G_wpI44fajewvDwVl22re9Fg1SdiMxdqH6Zpgscas6GfuNq5A/s1600/800px-Mosque_of_Schwetzingen_Castle.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 205px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLhyphenhyphenjrBN5_75a0sF0I1F4bdvjVsFFuJRzaHI4TEKVvCyXdx438k-BvdtW61HDU6oVGdx-e-acI7IUI8q3mlgNaJqtQb9G_wpI44fajewvDwVl22re9Fg1SdiMxdqH6Zpgscas6GfuNq5A/s320/800px-Mosque_of_Schwetzingen_Castle.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5663677876284864226" /></a>Even in architecture Turquerie found a place, this time in the form of Ottoman-inspired pleasure domes. <br /><br />Here is the central building of a "Türkischer Garten" built between the years of 1778-91 in southwestern Germany. It is part of the Schwetzingen Castle, the summer residence of the rulers of the then German state of Baden-Württemberg.<br /><br />One could easily imagine that so much interest in the Ottoman Empire would have to increase interest in that most essential symbol of the orient of all – carpets. But the fact that Europe's taste in carpet patterns went in an entirely different direction may only prove that, ultimately, Turquerie was more a measure of Europe's growing sense of self assurance than of cosmopolitan tastes.<br /><br />Throughout the 1600s, when Turquerie began, and through the 1700s as it continued, the "gout Turque" coincided with the greatest period of expansionism in European history. It was a fad in an epic period that included the transformation of the New World and the creation of sea trading networks and ultimately colonies across Asia.<br /><br />That meant that the key status symbols European society would have to be European too. Whereas wealthy Europeans in the Renaissance showed off their Turkish carpets to underline their rich status, the people of the late 1600s and early 1700s centuries furnished their mansions with European-woven baroque carpets instead.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href=" http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/antique-rugs/axminster/antique-axminster-english-rug-3437/"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 318px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuZPdAxPRekfeUy2mpN7fqvI7fITKipirbrTirfq_bxFMKLppyqSLpB3PLriizisO1Wu_CrWwFXdRMvVm5Tn8HuXT3PHapIRSERr_1R9gVoa8AWLnPj43Kyo1Kwut8o7g8dCmLgBfY08U/s320/antique_axminister_24091.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5666208647491279714" /></a>Here is an antique Axminster, woven in Britain, that reflects the English taste of the time. It is available from the <span style="font-style:italic;"><span style="font-weight:bold;"><a href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/antique-rugs/axminster/">Nazmiyal Collection</a></span></span> in New York.<br /><br />Interestingly, Europe's overwhelming preference for baroque carpets over oriental ones would not last long. By the mid 1700s, the taste for oriental carpets would begin returning with redoubled strength as Europe's view of the East started to dramatically change again. <br /><br />This new change, seen most visibly in Napoleon's military expedition to Egypt in 1798, would come as Europeans directly entered into the life of the Orient as never before. It, too, would be accompanied by a new fad: Orientalism. But that is the subject of another story (see: <span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://tea-and-carpets.blogspot.com/2010/03/orientalism-and-oriental-carpets.html">Orientalism and Oriental Carpets</a></span>). <br /><br />#<br /><br /><a href="http://tea-and-carpets.blogspot.com/">RETURN TO HOME</a><br /><br />#Tea and Carpetshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06607321259227169325noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804437195679232310.post-23443808703718070842011-09-16T22:34:00.000-07:002012-09-29T05:40:16.568-07:00From Hand-Knotted To Power-Loomed, Every Rug Has Its Appeal<a href=" http://www.rugstore-ne.co.uk/traditional"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5653198920600034082" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjepbM0Nq7b9wLdBm68Y92sDy1mjyZR5L29m8AmP62XotLapjTLxHX2JbIM0wn24aC4KdXjvc5-wOY9fdPjhtPSWklAxZJ4fkbhyphenhyphensyH7r38uqW2HRzhL1fxiewvRzSPgdK7V6z_q3DeYg4/s320/Bohemia.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 250px; margin: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 320px;" /></a>LONDON, Oct. 1, 2011 – One of the many fascinating things about rugs is the many different ways they are made.<br />
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In some places they are hand-kotted with traditional designs that date back thousands of years. In others, they are partly or entirely woven by machines and there is constant innovation.<br />
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The result is a variety of rugs so great that it is easy to get lost in a sea of choices and terminology.<br />
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To make sense of this vast world of weaving, Tea & Carpets recently sought out an expert who deals with it daily. <br />
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We asked Tony Sidney of <span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.rugstorene.co.uk/">Rug Store North East</a></span></span></span>, Britain's top rug online retailer, to describe the main ways rugs are produced today and why.<br />
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Sidney says the terms to know are hand-knotted, hand-loomed, hand-tufted, and power-loomed. Each kind of production offers qualities the others do not.<br />
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<a href=" http://www.rugstore-ne.co.uk/fine-afghan-146x102"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5653198699880799666" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNRw6-m9lRGhRqb9ZzsIuUvfBO9MjKVfqY0ZmAKiMFGu5eeFDIvFszcpFL6O2uCve0xZDfhJRvTqVV8q3t-_pdRiEHjHK38bSX6OW5MQabQaQmGuC8SdXnJx4IUnEUqZ5TzIoUPpEy38U/s320/Afghan+Kunduz.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 250px; margin: 0 0 10px 10px; width: 320px;" /></a>Hand-knotted offers the quality of the most human contact between the weaver, her or his creation, and the rug buyer. When the design is a traditional one, the rug is a message from one culture to another and across both space and time.<br />
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Here is an Afghan Kunduz rug, available from <span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.rugstorene.co.uk/">Rug Store NE</a></span></span>. It is an example of the traditional "red rugs of Central Asia" that continue to be woven today.<br />
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But because hand-knotting is laborious and time-consuming, many rug producers have for centuries also sought ways to machine-assist weavers. <br />
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One way is to use a loom that is powered by the hands and feet of the operator. This method, particularly used in India and other parts of Asia, speeds the weaving of kilim-like rugs which don't require a knotted pile.<br />
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A more recent innovation, since the 1980s, is hand-tufting, which helps weavers quickly produce a piled rug that resembles a knotted one but without actually tying knots. <br />
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<a href=" http://www.rugstore-ne.co.uk/agra-twist"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5653198542250320466" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmXFZAvhH0OWMPywkNHidWFYPojjN_ueCdASvb8CaBQppXAsjG8UIcwK1tf9eim_T6vDGU-UEEOVvRKRPskah0R4OEinycTy2F00KfqZ_xe-HhTclg0FJ0oTWbFwEQMBA5x29eEFYGd9c/s320/Hand-tuft+Heritage+Hall.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 250px; margin: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 320px;" /></a>Here is an example of a hand-tufted rug in a classical oriental design, available from <span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.rugstorene.co.uk/">Rug Store NE</a></span></span>.<br />
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In hand tufting, the weaver pushes wool or a man-made yarn through a matrix material using a hand-held pneumatic gun. Later the yarn is trimmed to create the pile and an adhesive backing is affixed to the rug to hold everything in place.<br />
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Sidney says that because hand-tufted rugs can be made faster than hand-knotted rugs, they are generally less expensive. <br />
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Yet the tufting method also creates a highly durable rug which, when produced by a skilled craftsmen, can accurately depict even intricate designs. <br />
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After hand tufting, the next step in mechanization is machine-looming. The photo below is of a machine-loomed Qashqai available from <span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.rugstorene.co.uk/">Rug Store NE</a></span></span>.<br />
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<a href=" http://www.rugstore-ne.co.uk/qashqai-gold"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5653198349968430258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw32JVZsKDuclXeHXaP3CYaqdXuicXXBTNByaldvng5Xe_h30N7729Hx4YcoxRoxjbc2VSchh2YuIWARSIeEl8zjMPCdQ6ZTpu-1o7Uk1GWEqWs7ehYjdsanam2phhnlrHPtoSN4f5Zvs/s320/pasha+qashgai.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 250px; margin: 0 0 10px 10px; width: 320px;" /></a>The use of machines to make rugs has a rich history, beginning in 1800 century with the first mechanical loom invented by Joseph Jacquard of Lyons, France. But large-scale machine production of carpets did not begin until 1839, when Erastus Bigelow, an American, invented a steam-driven loom. <br />
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The steam-driven loom dramatically upped the productivity of weavers. A single weaver suddenly could produce 25 square yards of carpet in a workday of 10 to 12 hours, compared to 7 square yards of carpet before. <br />
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Ever since, the invention of new machines and synthetic fibers has greatly stimulated the manufacture of rugs and carpets. Today, the technique is used to make copies of all kinds of rugs in western and oriental as well as modern designs, with wool or synthetic fibers. <br />
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So which of the many different kinds of woven rugs sell best? <br />
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Sidney says the biggest market exists for machine-loomed rugs. At his store, he says, "the largest selling machine-woven rugs at the moment are probably shag pile rugs with the main production coming from Belgium and Turkey." <br />
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Turkey – and Bulgaria – are also rising producers of machine-loomed Oriental rugs. "Turkish and Bulgarian wiltons (named for the Wilton Loom they are woven on) are becoming more evident in the market as Belgian ranges in traditional Oriental designs seem to be slowing down," Sidney notes. <br />
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<a href=" http://www.rugstore-ne.co.uk/2028-black"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5653198143549252514" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMIHaESwC6lGsYiJ1h3WXBnnUORzfwNkhDFz8LXq0xdhUtb_ywv-2KDM9KiJDDdqD55eXh8xfcshBhU-Kp-N__btW0LI4QrljsSHNV8SGeP1sgNkJcYz7mkzKovd-g9tfsFqq4RfGdzG4/s320/Nourison.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 250px; margin: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 320px;" /></a>The next bestselling rugs, Sidney says, are hand-tufted rugs in both contemporary and traditional designs.<br />
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Rug Store NE, for example, stocks mainly Chinese production with a large variety of qualities available -- including high-end wool and silk ranges from Nourison, the world's leading producer of handmade area rugs. Here is an example in wool.<br />
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For both machine-loomed and hand-tufted rugs, it is price, availability of programmed sizes (especially larger sizes) and choice of colors that seem to be the main reasons for their popularity over traditional hand-knotted rugs. Rapid and large scale production means distributors and customers can count in advance on find the size and colors they want.<br />
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Does that mean that hand-knotted rugs -- the small fish in this sea of production – one day will be crowded out of the market?<br />
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Sidney sees no danger of that. <br />
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"There is still no substitute for a genuine hand-knotted Oriental rug, woven by a experienced weaver using good quality wool and dyestuffs," he says. <br />
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He adds, "We will always have a select group of customers who know the difference and are happy to pay for a good quality hand-knotted piece that will far outlast any machine-made rug."<br />
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(The picture at the top of this page is a detail of a medallion in a hand-knotted rug from Pakistan reproducing a William Morris design.)<br />
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<a href="http://tea-and-carpets.blogspot.com/">RETURN TO HOME</a><br />
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#Tea and Carpetshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06607321259227169325noreply@blogger.com31tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804437195679232310.post-76953364289432523482011-09-15T22:37:00.000-07:002011-09-15T22:37:00.204-07:00Russia And The Red Rugs Of Central Asia<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/detail-image/?image=44000hires"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 274px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7kUgF8rGWpeOsjq96QHzKaT6ads8MrMumeIdrvX5-bpPH7UwPMnBfQ0SzpKChqJOwB1-2hSGQLP2Sk_9ZN2r7JtBboZ8Zh1-ZsFHiv8hZyfk2HDqhpwcG7w37kX9d8hn-x6OuExKO8qo/s320/Bokhara.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5645405967674609874" /></a>MOSCOW, Sept. 15, 2011 -- Central Asian carpets came to attention of Europeans in the mid-1800s largely as a result of the Russian Empire's expansion into the region.<br /><br />The expansion took place in a dramatic reversal of the previous order.<br /><br />For centuries, Russians had lived in the shadows of the Turkic and Mongol empires that dominated Eurasia. From 1223 to 1480, neighboring Tatars held such direct sway over Russia's principalities that Russians call it the time of the "Tatar yoke." <br /><br />And for centuries more, nomads so regularly raided Russia and Eastern Europe for slaves that the word "slave" itself derives from "Slav" in many European languages.<br /><br />But gunpowder gradually neutralized the advantages of the horse borne warriors. <br /><br />As Robert B. Golden notes in his book Central Asia in World History (2011), nomads were no longer able to take cities fortified with canons by the late 1400s. By the mid-1600s, the infantryman's flintlock musket had become a match for the nomad cavalryman's composite bow. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhl2k7Jyl4x_d3Ruo3XwJMNs0POPT_H6lOjY3EXPmPHO9rf9JFirbovkQKzq0mY8OQ2Bi2P8DZ1BGUtLs3sNJrtH-du0bMnsjh8H-Y_qaNdRs949oIXdOKhyMxl4-IAF0IhXhb6uI_vcI/s1600/Defence_of_the_Samarkand_Citadel.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 232px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhl2k7Jyl4x_d3Ruo3XwJMNs0POPT_H6lOjY3EXPmPHO9rf9JFirbovkQKzq0mY8OQ2Bi2P8DZ1BGUtLs3sNJrtH-du0bMnsjh8H-Y_qaNdRs949oIXdOKhyMxl4-IAF0IhXhb6uI_vcI/s320/Defence_of_the_Samarkand_Citadel.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5645406112563712786" /></a>Then it was Russia's turn to expand across the steppes, starting in the mid-1500s under Ivan IV the Terrible. By the time the Russian Empire reached the Silk Road cities of Central Asia in the late 1800s, it is was an unstoppable industrializing power that had helped defeat Napoleon and recently annexed the Caucasus. <br /><br />Tashkent, Bukhara, and Samarkand fell to the Russian Empire like dominos, captured in 1865, 1867, and 1868, respectively. Above is a picture of the battle for Samarkand.<br /><br />The cities fell quickly because, by the 1800s Central Asia had declined into an impoverished region of settled and nomadic peoples steeped in tradition. The trans-continental Silk Road trading routes had been undercut by the sea trade and the wealth and vision they once generated were gone.<br /><br />But some tribes put up a fierce resistance. At the battle of Geok Tepe ("Green Hill" in Turkmen) in 1882, some 25,000 Turkmen held out in a fortress for 23 days against a far better armed Russian force of 6,000. Finally, the walls were mined and the fortress was taken by storm.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7vitOpPAG1DI7weP0xpwp5NlYVRlQBDVXSi5ozrOIAbAmTJg5D670eN76MgOBk6e-sxUhSwq3Okwb5VhG1MPsNOXJcd69YxIKHmM3weFcfd9oGevm07GsRH8E_a08cfUdxp-cT4WofuM/s1600/Turkmen_soldiers.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 294px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7vitOpPAG1DI7weP0xpwp5NlYVRlQBDVXSi5ozrOIAbAmTJg5D670eN76MgOBk6e-sxUhSwq3Okwb5VhG1MPsNOXJcd69YxIKHmM3weFcfd9oGevm07GsRH8E_a08cfUdxp-cT4WofuM/s320/Turkmen_soldiers.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5645406282780115490" /></a>Here is a photo of Turkmen soldiers in chain mail and armed with antiquated muskets.<br /><br />In the wake of Moscow's conquests, the famous red carpets of Central Asia, known in the West but rarely seen in abundance, came flooding onto the Russian market. <br /><br />One American observer, New York Herald correspondent Januarius MacGahan, witnessed the surrender of the city of Khiva to the Russian Army. He reported that families were forced to sell their carpets and other belongings to traders in order to pay tributes levied upon the defeated tribes: <br /><br />"The Turcoman carpets, too, were very much in demand, and sold readily, in spite of the high prices demanded for them and of the fact that hundreds had been "looted" in the campaign against the Yomuds. A carpet, four yards long by two wide, brought 4 to 5 (pounds).<br /><br />He added:<br /><br />"A curious feature of the sale was, that although the Turcomans must have been hard pressed for money to pay the indemnity, they could not be induced to lower their prices a single kopek. They simply named their price, and you might take the article or leave it, as you pleased."<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihIMG65dxR_ikxysEHcU_ykcQzTM6YC43yaDLK-mH7Otpz0SPEQgk3gYplo9sfkI8Lkclu00373CCVs8c8no71cIdG3LIcT8zHZw4fzeAdAED7LdyG7WL3rdPoakSUatlwrO02hy8Uhbo/s1600/Turkman+woman+by+yurt.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihIMG65dxR_ikxysEHcU_ykcQzTM6YC43yaDLK-mH7Otpz0SPEQgk3gYplo9sfkI8Lkclu00373CCVs8c8no71cIdG3LIcT8zHZw4fzeAdAED7LdyG7WL3rdPoakSUatlwrO02hy8Uhbo/s320/Turkman+woman+by+yurt.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5645406448755957922" /></a>Here is a photo of a Turkmen woman standing on a carpet she has woven before her yurt. The photograph is by Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky, who traveled throughout the Russian Empire in the early 1900s and was a pioneer of color photography.<br /><br />The Russian conquest of Central Asia came at the height of the scramble by European powers for colonies worldwide and Moscow's occupation of the region followed the model of the times.<br /><br />Despite the fact the territory was part of the Russian Empire, its peoples were designated "inorodtsy", or aliens. They were subjects but not citizens of Russia. <br /><br />And unlike other ethnically non-Russian subjects, they could not be drafted into the Imperial Russian army, where they might acquire knowledge of modern warfare and weaponry. That was, perhaps, in memory of the past days of the Tatar yoke.<br /><br />Of course, there was mass colonization, too, with ethnic Russians moving into the region, particularly to Kazakhstan, starting in the 1890s,.<br /><br />Still, while Central Asia was treated very much as a colony, Moscow was interested in learning more about both its economic potential and its peoples. So, Russian academic teams fanned out along with colonial administrators.<br /><br />The work of some of these teams helped lay the foundations of the West's enduring fascination with Central Asian rugs today – both as art and history. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia8nQRW1rfLzHe_Kxy13_3sHdEzHNpMonCyKDuWUlMZm0b1KOuqT-6o4V69VL87auTiEaXsFVxR8svfQVakbr365nRmBd-w1lDh3LM1u1WHuX9ohVJQzxYcg8oMpNp5O2jsLACROe_r48/s1600/Dudin+Bazaar+with+Tilework.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 298px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia8nQRW1rfLzHe_Kxy13_3sHdEzHNpMonCyKDuWUlMZm0b1KOuqT-6o4V69VL87auTiEaXsFVxR8svfQVakbr365nRmBd-w1lDh3LM1u1WHuX9ohVJQzxYcg8oMpNp5O2jsLACROe_r48/s320/Dudin+Bazaar+with+Tilework.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5645406623037018178" /></a>In 1901 and 1902, Samuil Martynovich Dudin, already a well-known amateur specialist in Oriental Art, led two trips to collect materials and photographs for the first Central Asian collection of the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg. He brought back an enormous number of objects (2,526), including 350 rugs and carpets.<br /><br />Here is one of Dudin's photographs, showing a bazaar in Central Asia.<br /><br />Dudin's rug collection, which exists intact today, included Uzbek, Kirghiz, Baluch, and Afghan rugs. But most were Turkmen pieces because he considered the Turkmen to be the best carpet weavers in the world. He explained why in his travel notes:<br /><br />"This quality of Turkmen rugs, in addition to other reasons, can be explained by the fact that all items are used, aside from their practical function, as decoration for the yurts. When put on camels during migrations and wedding ceremonies, they served as publicity for the family, visual evidence of the weavers' skill, the brides and wives.<br /><br />He concluded:<br /><br />"It was the competition of the inhabitants of various yurts that created the superb examples of carpet craftsmanship which one admires in one's travel on the Turkmen steppes and in local carpet shops.” <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1b-bGrTogpafsrgc3rbOaQpp25UL7GRCCxhcdMyVYDBOuilBPGtB1xOgcckHmi_OcFaEvOtHIvQBprO9rVUV_CthLSDmpTTlfkc-Rdb7mV69C_oUOH8PMEU6DUsmsOXyK6xk4TjneeWI/s1600/1910.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 280px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1b-bGrTogpafsrgc3rbOaQpp25UL7GRCCxhcdMyVYDBOuilBPGtB1xOgcckHmi_OcFaEvOtHIvQBprO9rVUV_CthLSDmpTTlfkc-Rdb7mV69C_oUOH8PMEU6DUsmsOXyK6xk4TjneeWI/s320/1910.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5645406960389611282" /></a>This picture of a Turkmen family seated in its yurt and surrounded by textile items was taken by Prokudin-Gorsky in the early 1900s.<br /><br />But if Russians appreciated Central Asian carpets and, helped funnel them to Western Europe, the increased interest had a devastating effect on traditional carpet weaving itself.<br /><br />By 1898, the ancient Silk Road cities were linked by rail to Russia proper via a western line to the Caspian and, by 1906, via a northern line to Orenburg (on modern Russia's Kazakh border). Commercialization of the weaving craft accelerated with the pace of exports.<br /><br />Rug researcher Richard Wright notes that "from about 1900, functionaries were worrying about weavers' movement away from traditional designs."<br /><br />To support traditional handicrafts, administrators introduced the "kustar" (or "artisan") program in Central Asia just as elsewhere in the Empire. The program, which distributed traditional designs to weavers and organized promotional exhibitions, was intended to help peasants supplement their livelihood by producing and selling quality handicrafts. But often it had the effect of simply fanning commercialism further.<br /><br />The decline in quality continued. By 1903, says Wright, official reports were complaining of the "recent use" of synthetic dyes instead of natural ones and of "hasty work." By the end of the first decade of 20th century there were complaints that it was difficult to see sharp outlines in “new” rugs.<br /><br />Then, far greater threats to tradition arrived.<br /><br />The Russian Revolution brought communism to Central Asia and the drive to industrialize. Thousands of weavers were "collectivized" into state-run manufactories where, aided by machines, they churned out endless meters of cheap carpeting for public halls across the Soviet Union. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8s0eEYIFr68ZvZIKNdoOZhUabzn44Tp0OooEJIw9mtGJLBTG-cFSoY5Hp7VNdQipI_TibOPyWQhdXmaXqCDB2-MsOqc9bYq3xRkV_PlN4jSIwigvA_sgGPJbPrsZnN3ZJE-ytU0Lx72U/s1600/Lenin+carpet.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 197px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8s0eEYIFr68ZvZIKNdoOZhUabzn44Tp0OooEJIw9mtGJLBTG-cFSoY5Hp7VNdQipI_TibOPyWQhdXmaXqCDB2-MsOqc9bYq3xRkV_PlN4jSIwigvA_sgGPJbPrsZnN3ZJE-ytU0Lx72U/s320/Lenin+carpet.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5645407278665810546" /></a>Those weavers who still created carpets at home found their ability to maintain the quality of their work and sell it severely limited. The Soviets' initial maintenance of the kustar program gave way to state neglect, good materials were hard to get, and the free-market was banned. <br /><br />Here is a rare example of museum-quality weaving in the Soviet era: a portrait carpet of Lenin. It may have been specially commissioned for a meeting hall, mausoleum, or the private villa of a powerful party boss.<br /><br />Yet if overall the weaving of the once-famous red carpets of Central Asia sank abysmally, there was one saving grace in the story. Ironically, it was the ability of Turkmens who had fled Moscow's control to continue their tradition of fine weaving and even pioneer a return to natural dyes.<br /><br />As Robert Pinner & Murray L. Eiland, Jr, note in their 1999 book Between the Black Desert and the Red – Turkmen Carpets from the Wiedersperg Collection, "many Turkmen groups migrated to northern Afghanistan for religious reasons" when the Russian Empire conquered Central Asia. And later, "around the time of the Russian revolution there were more tribal movements toward the south."<br /><br />In northern Afghanistan, the new arrivals joined fellow Turkmen who had been living and weaving there for centuries. Their weavings found their way West via Kabul and, later -- when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979 and many weavers fled south to Pakistan -- via the rug bazaars of Peshawar.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWlmcYYzs9l98ktOnbi7Yl1wcRh_nCaEV5g1SnzckQ_yMFX387yPu5K1F4OIpj0r21ylPvJwnWPmq5hFTGeH9ThFvIx4gnR0jzWP2IbXQfsBPHBJbj1wAkycKuRitK8BjQRyafOQnMcU0/s1600/Turkmenistan+flag.gif"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWlmcYYzs9l98ktOnbi7Yl1wcRh_nCaEV5g1SnzckQ_yMFX387yPu5K1F4OIpj0r21ylPvJwnWPmq5hFTGeH9ThFvIx4gnR0jzWP2IbXQfsBPHBJbj1wAkycKuRitK8BjQRyafOQnMcU0/s320/Turkmenistan+flag.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5645407484890054274" /></a>Today, with the independence of the Central Asian states since 1991, there are hopes that fine carpet weaving will revive, particularly in Turkmenistan. But progress is slow, despite the Turkmen government's opening of a carpet museum in the capital in 1994 and injunctions to producers to return to natural dyes.<br /><br />Still, there is no reason to doubt a renaissance will come, or to doubt Central Asia's ties to its carpet heritage. By no coincidence, the flag of independent Turkmenistan is also a showcase of the 'guls' most commonly used by the country's five major tribes in their carpet weaving. Those tribes are the Tekke, Yomut, Ersari, Chodor, and Saryk.<br /><br />(Note: Dudin is quoted in 'Thirty Turkmen Rugs - Masterpieces from the Collection of S. M. Dudin, Part II (Saryk Weavings)' by Elena Tsareva, originally published in Oriental Rug Review, Vol. 11, #1)<br /><br /><br />#<br /><br /><a href="http://tea-and-carpets.blogspot.com/">RETURN TO HOME</a><br /><br />#Tea and Carpetshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06607321259227169325noreply@blogger.com38tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804437195679232310.post-80740025291766340932011-07-23T03:56:00.000-07:002011-08-17T00:34:13.952-07:00Time Off: A Rug Dealer Vacations In Turkey<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlU9LPkALRdr0sjMjA6EDsRBXaXAJfQsf5_7Vdui1l2KlRkYAE64s9c3mhNes9JFOP3OSKZX1YXmgDwudYynzpAUFsvin6UJ9GcDQ_o4PPV8HDmk_fSTEc93HWOi47nCk8So5B9kHuL0M/s1600/konya+weaver.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlU9LPkALRdr0sjMjA6EDsRBXaXAJfQsf5_7Vdui1l2KlRkYAE64s9c3mhNes9JFOP3OSKZX1YXmgDwudYynzpAUFsvin6UJ9GcDQ_o4PPV8HDmk_fSTEc93HWOi47nCk8So5B9kHuL0M/s320/konya+weaver.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5640624626481385778" /></a>SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 15, 2011 – What does a rug dealer do when he goes on vacation in Turkey?
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<br />One thing is to reflexively cast an eye around the rug markets to see what's new.
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<br />So, when Tea and Carpets learned that San Francisco dealer Chris Wahlgren of <span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://www.nomadrugs.com/">Nomad Rugs</a></span></span> had recently been to Istanbul and Konya, we asked him to share his impressions with us.
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<br />The biggest surprise?
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<br />After not visiting Turkey since 2004, he was amazed by how good things look. The European Union designated Istanbul as the European Capital of Culture in 2010 and the city spruced up its main historic districts for the occasion. They still shine.
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<br />As for Konya, that too has changed. Over the years it has turned from a sleepy town into a thriving city of over a million people.
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<br />Here is a picture of Konya with its famous Alâeddin Mosque, constructed in stages in the mid-12th and mid-13th centuries by the Seljuks.
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<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU5h8rZMuAqiigy6tJxc4yP95J1WoXnm0KGp5uHNsmXChtQ8_SMGrdqNkQDwURH_hURZehCEkaCyU1ZYa_eJdfLjRF14SYkwX3MaSMoaHDc4hJ8V70J8DY1c9YNL11D-vikKmhB9WIGXQ/s1600/Konya+mosque.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 209px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU5h8rZMuAqiigy6tJxc4yP95J1WoXnm0KGp5uHNsmXChtQ8_SMGrdqNkQDwURH_hURZehCEkaCyU1ZYa_eJdfLjRF14SYkwX3MaSMoaHDc4hJ8V70J8DY1c9YNL11D-vikKmhB9WIGXQ/s320/Konya+mosque.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5641450743981190850" /></a>All the changes are a measure of how much Turkey's economy keeps growing despite the big slump of recent years. And that, Wahlgren says, creates challenges for its rug sector.
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<br />As more manufacturing jobs open up, weavers are increasingly moving to factory jobs instead. They consider the factory jobs more prestigious and secure than handicrafts and the work often pays better.
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<br />To compete, rug producers have to increase salaries. But that drives their own production costs up, making it harder to compete with powerhouses like India and China where labor costs are low.
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<br />"I don't know how much longer we can count of Turkey to be a producer except on a small scale," Wahlgren observes. Already about half the stock in Istanbul's carpet shops is from Pakistan and Afghanistan because Turkish production is not large enough to meet demand.
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<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglvrAcdihfgcJnEQfFM20NdDRIX79jbhfnPIOWro7vBO1kex1TzZwhPTMmn3Eyl64hr9Y5-MIPPc1M65iCTlfKk4NXnmKpv8jkXJ67Yq6uOKMjDCk7LIv-2DwUq3Y8Ilo_BAdhFQMayLE/s1600/patchwork.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglvrAcdihfgcJnEQfFM20NdDRIX79jbhfnPIOWro7vBO1kex1TzZwhPTMmn3Eyl64hr9Y5-MIPPc1M65iCTlfKk4NXnmKpv8jkXJ67Yq6uOKMjDCk7LIv-2DwUq3Y8Ilo_BAdhFQMayLE/s320/patchwork.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5640624837613737618" /></a>Still, Turkey's carpet producers are famously resilient. And Wahlgren saw plenty of signs that they plan to stay in the game, particularly by innovating with new designs.
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<br />"Turkey has always been smart about re-imagining rugs," he says. That includes in recent decades pioneering the return of natural colors with the DOBAG project, introducing the world to patchwork kilims, and experimenting with patchwork rugs.
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<br />Here is a patchwork kilim available from <span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://www.nomadrugs.com/">Nomad Rugs</a></span></span> in San Francisco
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<br />Today, the newest innovation is "overdyed" rugs, also known as "retro" rugs. They were first shown in the United States at the Domotex show in Atlanta last year but Wahlgren found so many in Turkish shops that it is clear producers are banking on them to become a new trend.
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<br />How an "overdyed" rug (shown here) is made is interesting.
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<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLsZHYe0oFDAlTA1P8Jw6Ax647bRsfKDecIuy0_T65V25lI9Y4_fxhsD_iYAwztOeo8lkcNjnesuAK8i3IYPC8m0jems_i6tjhid6NXmG0ygD5OSlvLeJ2ppoaS16mpUG5_YPG5cY6FpY/s1600/over+dye+carpet.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 198px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLsZHYe0oFDAlTA1P8Jw6Ax647bRsfKDecIuy0_T65V25lI9Y4_fxhsD_iYAwztOeo8lkcNjnesuAK8i3IYPC8m0jems_i6tjhid6NXmG0ygD5OSlvLeJ2ppoaS16mpUG5_YPG5cY6FpY/s320/over+dye+carpet.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5641450875346077426" /></a>"They take old Turkish village rugs that are not saleable due to their color or condition, then they bleach and wash them, and then overdye them in very brilliant colors, like bright blues, mauve, or purple," he says. "They are heavily distressed, with remnants of the original design showing through in the background."
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<br />These are rugs that are meant to be highly visible and so they probably go best with minimalist furnishing styles. Individual rug lovers may, or may not, like them. But from the producers' point of view, one can't help but admire their genius. They are the perfect solution to rising weaver costs.
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<br />"They can get an old village rug for a couple of hundred bucks, bleach and overdye it, and then sell it for a couple of thousand bucks if it’s room-sized," our visitor notes.
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<br />If that isn't clever marketing, what is? Wahlgren himself hasn't decided if he likes the rugs enough to stock them but he's keeping the door open. Without a doubt the rugs are intriguing – combining a modern look with a traditional design – and they could well be a fad for the next five years or so.
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<br />So, did Wahlgren, who says he spent 90 percent of his vacation time in Turkey vacationing, bring anything home with him?
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<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOnrfu1f83aUqTHzihf7K8KeJDc_6Np3meL9-Agh-aXq7dJz4h3sfjTBc2vA2HEQhLoc4vaVv6uS8yihkGJWhriDlFRWKMiktDKIbgJARuEBWu7x8uNo4o6Pt75dPvuVjnR8ukVNY2FPg/s1600/nat+dye+kilim.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOnrfu1f83aUqTHzihf7K8KeJDc_6Np3meL9-Agh-aXq7dJz4h3sfjTBc2vA2HEQhLoc4vaVv6uS8yihkGJWhriDlFRWKMiktDKIbgJARuEBWu7x8uNo4o6Pt75dPvuVjnR8ukVNY2FPg/s320/nat+dye+kilim.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5640625047984123186" /></a>Like any visitor to Turkey -- on vacation or on business -- he did indeed.
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<br />For his shop, he ordered some mohair tulus with wool so fine it feels like silk, some natural dye kilims, some patchwork kilims, and some yastik-sized small rugs. About 30 to 40 pieces in all.
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<br />This picture is of a natural dye kilim from Konya, available from <span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://www.nomadrugs.com/">Nomad Rugs</a></span></span> in San Francisco.
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<br />And he brought something home for himself, too.
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<br />"I received a beautiful kilim from Mehmet Uçar," he says "natural dyed with a deep saffron color." He doesn't need to add that a gift like that is something to treasure.
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<br />Mehmet Uçar, who works in the Konya region, has been called the "master of the natural-dyed Konya kelim" by Hali magazine and for years has been one of Wahlgren's close associates and suppliers.
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<br />That may seem like a lot of rugs to bring home from vacation. But being able to bring so many is precisely the fun of being in the rug business.
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<br />(The picture at the top of the page is of a weaver in Konya.)
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<br /><a href="http://tea-and-carpets.blogspot.com/">RETURN HOME</a>
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<br />Tea and Carpetshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06607321259227169325noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804437195679232310.post-26349909247955798172011-07-09T00:56:00.000-07:002011-07-31T04:54:48.638-07:00Rugs And The Art Of Looking Beyond What You Can See<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh94Tzv7rhbzCaUf2RY2I8RJTBu2olbaTzmNg7hk6ohd7QrJh5aMGqNXF3FZMczDxb6J9tbbX5cDxpZg9wvUeTWSgY6YsGPEHMp_NV8qWag09Bna9VULSrCFoT2CT-FQ1AQWfWjZRmE_Fg/s1600/talish.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 182px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh94Tzv7rhbzCaUf2RY2I8RJTBu2olbaTzmNg7hk6ohd7QrJh5aMGqNXF3FZMczDxb6J9tbbX5cDxpZg9wvUeTWSgY6YsGPEHMp_NV8qWag09Bna9VULSrCFoT2CT-FQ1AQWfWjZRmE_Fg/s320/talish.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5627351556978004626" /></a>PRAGUE, July 15, 2011 -- Can viewing a rug be a metaphysical experience?<br /><br />It can be if you see rugs as many are meant to be seen. <br /><br />That is, as a patch of infinity.<br /><br />The idea might not make much sense until you consider how many rugs have field patterns which do not seem to stop at the rug's border. <br /><br />Instead, they have an endlessly repeating pattern which appears to spill under and past the rug's own borders. <br /><br />And because the pattern seems to extend ever outward, it is easy to imagine the rug itself is just a small sample of an infinitely larger universe, like a patch of stars in the sky.<br /><br />Just how this works can be seen in rugs from almost any era and from across the rug-producing East. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaDeS9vk5f1c77YTYGTDc_WvcGCtTK6n7EcXbPLqOAfKpzNvAs0eb3IO1xqh9Yp-gWsm2xFyw5LuzecENsvBpMbwycY9AOSoO0dAlfWqmzLSn_9F1Pn-p9O8clXX45YKAMN3FZoot7iuE/s1600/Ottomancourtusakmedallion-1.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 136px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaDeS9vk5f1c77YTYGTDc_WvcGCtTK6n7EcXbPLqOAfKpzNvAs0eb3IO1xqh9Yp-gWsm2xFyw5LuzecENsvBpMbwycY9AOSoO0dAlfWqmzLSn_9F1Pn-p9O8clXX45YKAMN3FZoot7iuE/s320/Ottomancourtusakmedallion-1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5627258554812674194" /></a>Here is an Ottoman court Usak Medallion carpet from around the 16th century. <br /><br />The focal point of the rug is the central medallion but other, partial, medallions float above and below it, giving the impression that the patterns go on forever.<br /><br />But if Ottoman court weavers seemed to enjoy creating such illusions of infinity, they were far from the only ones. <br /><br />So did court weavers in Mamluk Egypt, Safavid Persia and Mughal India. <br /><br />And so did -- and continue to do – many city and tribal weavers.<br /><br />Below is a 19th century Turkmen tribal carpet – a Yomud – from Central Asia. <br /><br />It, too, has a field made up of ever repeating elements that have no beginning and no end. <br /><br />At the top of the carpet, the final row of field motifs is only half complete, as if they literally have been interrupted by the border only to continue again on the other side.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/detail-image/?image=antique_yomud_oriental_iran_rugs_418822"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 178px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxCBPZmMzmhYLn_OUcFtojHUe5SJOw1sKH17Q2jF-_bWf5MKHylWyYOPQDek0SD9KJX-o1sLO2-5RoKV6mtyhH0eafhFDnNtD9hdbqIpznsCYTTEHN7-nDz4nI6iyWjUBsf2map3M37NA/s320/Antique_Yomud_Oriental_Iran_Rugs_418822.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5627258878922616386" /></a>This Yomud rug is available to collectors from the <span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/">Nazmiyal Collection</a></span></span> in New York.<br /><br />Interestingly, the appearance of the borders themselves often only helps heighten the sense of infinity. <br /><br />Particularly on village rugs, weavers are likely to simply stop working on a rug when it reaches the desired length. The result is "unreconciled borders," where the repeat of the border motifs stops but does not clearly end, much like the field design itself.<br /><br />The readiness of a weaver to stop "just-like-that" as she weaves suggests an artistic tradition very different from that of the West, where symmetry and a sense of completion are usually the rule in art. <br /><br />So perhaps it is no surprise that some scholars have tried to explain where the tradition comes from and what it means.<br /><br />Schuyler V.R. Cammann, a professor of East Asian studies who has written about rugs, puts it this way:<br /><br />“We are accustomed to seeing patterns that fit neatly within trim borders or assigned frames, completely compact entities. To comprehend these infinite patterns, expressing a very different way of thinking, we must put asides our customary points of view and take a new look at some of the rugs we have come to take for granted.”<br /><br />His remarks appear in the Textile Museum Journal, December 1972, in an article entitled "Symbolic Meanings in Oriental Rugs."<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1mnxRn5B2Z0xqfJho0cww8XUBPNB_gcwALkRlhSJmXd0vsUIJyFdQuKJMCpl8_lgF8bu_70Xd1UTns0cCCxm0AFbx1Dbgp1Mt1Ct0WEC4x0ByGg9XlE1EaTt7pIBgBImqMGMUKfmxh94/s1600/ghashghai-qashqay-qashqai-tribe-weaving-2-685.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 234px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1mnxRn5B2Z0xqfJho0cww8XUBPNB_gcwALkRlhSJmXd0vsUIJyFdQuKJMCpl8_lgF8bu_70Xd1UTns0cCCxm0AFbx1Dbgp1Mt1Ct0WEC4x0ByGg9XlE1EaTt7pIBgBImqMGMUKfmxh94/s320/ghashghai-qashqay-qashqai-tribe-weaving-2-685.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5627259015145798754" /></a>Cammann believes the answer lies in the way weavers in Muslim lands view the world and are inspired by the spiritual ideas and beliefs of their common faith.<br /><br />As he notes, "we meet the concept of endlessness very frequently in Islamic thought. God – under the name of Allah – is described as having limitless transcendence, boundless power, infinite mercy and compassion."<br /><br />But if the concept of infinity is central to Islam, he believes that Eastern artists' comfort with depicting the world in infinite terms can be traced to long before Islam itself. <br /><br />Cammann notes that in the Louvre Museum there is a 7th century BC Assyrian carved stone slab which represents a carpet set before the throne in the king's court at Ninevah. Its central field, enclosed by a continuous floral border, also has a repeating pattern.<br /><br />"These continuous patterns – so characteristic of Middle Eastern design and by no means confined to rugs – did not originate in the Islamic tradition, he concludes. "Muslim weavers took over this already ancient device to express some of their most fundamental beliefs."<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOX320mFj9JPbzrqEguI5ce8QY_MyJITEeSJokd77fqDyoeWMnu-Fw6kCZT4mI8d02KGDMRMUtVbrSD6V_RFbrFmWyfPJHTwXaYXY7T62UKzfHBDdb5C6g8-HNNLVof9W7Ni9ZCSRefXQ/s1600/Dome_of_the_Sheikh_Lotf_Allah_Mosque.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 299px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOX320mFj9JPbzrqEguI5ce8QY_MyJITEeSJokd77fqDyoeWMnu-Fw6kCZT4mI8d02KGDMRMUtVbrSD6V_RFbrFmWyfPJHTwXaYXY7T62UKzfHBDdb5C6g8-HNNLVof9W7Ni9ZCSRefXQ/s320/Dome_of_the_Sheikh_Lotf_Allah_Mosque.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5627259167449340450" /></a>If the artists who weave oriental carpets were content to express infinity in their work and stop there, it would already by interesting enough. <br /><br />But some rug designs appear to go yet a step further and that is to try to suggest the "indefinability" of the world around us, as well.<br /><br />That concept may seem more familiar when we realize that it already is a large part of what makes Islamic architecture so distinctive and instantly recognizable, such as this dome interior of the Sheikh Lotfollah in Isfahan. <br /><br />On mosques, the walls and domes are often covered with arabesques and tile which break up the surface into myriad smaller patterns which make the solid structure of the building itself appear to be what it is not: airy and weightless. <br /><br />In effect, matter is "dissolved," and that contradiction between appearance and reality powerfully evokes the indefinability of the divine, of the spiritual, and ultimately, of all creation. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8pBaIfVeXe2f8u6qDVzH50wgWLjPJhORHh2cb3xrwCFATyS4g6jzuLHI1XSzaP4Ek_RwZR_SF9Ua9_MKUy7Zil_m5bCG-_YgWFFGMsYB_-T2p3h_pWjWu-WCiazfGF5vCIVLE_-gG2k8/s1600/LottoCarpetKufesqueBorder-2.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8pBaIfVeXe2f8u6qDVzH50wgWLjPJhORHh2cb3xrwCFATyS4g6jzuLHI1XSzaP4Ek_RwZR_SF9Ua9_MKUy7Zil_m5bCG-_YgWFFGMsYB_-T2p3h_pWjWu-WCiazfGF5vCIVLE_-gG2k8/s320/LottoCarpetKufesqueBorder-2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5627259310776050386" /></a>Often the breaking up of a surface into smaller elements is done using a pattern which itself seems to endlessly repeat beyond the confines of the surface itself, further reinforcing the idea of the infinite, indefinable nature of the universe.<br /><br />And it is this combination of techniques that can be seen at work in many of carpets which most famously have captured the imagination of Western rug collectors and painters.<br /><br />Here is a photo of a Lotto carpet woven in a court workshop of the Ottoman Empire. <br /><br />The Lotto design so captivated European Renaissance painters that it is the most frequently depicted classical Anatolian carpet of all, appearing this way or with variations in some 500 paintings.<br /><br />But Lotto carpets are just one example. Cammann says the same principles can be seen in the earliest known rugs from Seljuk period and in the Mamluk carpets of pre-Ottoman Egypt. <br /><br />And, again, they seem to be at work in many village and tribal rugs throughout history. <br /><br />According to Cammann, the repeated stars and octagons and extra fillers in other shapes that break up the background of Caucasian rugs are not so much the result of a horror vacui, or fear of empty space, as many Westerners imagine, but an example of the dissolution of matter.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/detail-image/?image=43956hres"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 237px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvgzTpT_iaEhStNrz0rrIvIn2MoIg4s9SWIby69Axlh25lTjaXzlvdtdguWKUN67Sg2GLF65XZAAqg_vnkhM1LgND6wLVIIQskR4tbBVLaRyMkGDp8GYgU92sH48thyVxwF9sYtvfjqyY/s320/Shirvan+Nazmiyal.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5627259498921852194" /></a>Here is a Shirvan carpet from the Caucasus, showing the use of such filler. It is available from <span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/">Nazmiyal Collection</a></span></span> in New York.<br /><br />Many Central Asian rugs, including Yomud and Tekke, also combine the principles of infinity and dissolution of matter in their patterns. <br /><br />It would be fascinating to know more about how and when weavers across the Muslim world began to introduce such intriguing ambiguity into their works. <br /><br />But finding out is complicated by the fact that Muslim historians never paid much attention to chronicling changes in the arts.<br /><br />The reasons for the absence of art history, interestingly, are much the same as those which made the artists allude to the indefinability of divine creation rather than depict subjects realistically. <br /><br />If something is indefinable, it is not man's work to define it. The historians passed on to more worldly concerns, like politics, and left the artists' secrets to the artists themselves.<br /><br />#<br /><br /><a href="http://tea-and-carpets.blogspot.com/">RETURN TO HOME</a><br /><br />#Tea and Carpetshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06607321259227169325noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804437195679232310.post-65817728169270161552011-06-12T02:12:00.000-07:002011-06-15T11:18:28.488-07:00The Antique Carpet Trade: "It's More About What People Feel Than What They Need."<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/antique-rugs/antique-agra-oriental-rug-41269-2434.cfm"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIpkgCmem1OBtQ0hNfGpZJzjIRHVoGgoA7mZBNz3yr2jffnLivrS1HM0PTZzc3Rzt1qSiZCCpnSEuxoX4DcbqFzbbyN0Nt4n3gCXS5LRBrugLQYDyHUVNEjfVZqW0VPeRFbc7G57IchnY/s320/agra+detail.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5617259732519449346" /></a>NEW YORK, June 15, 2011 -- If there is a pinnacle to the rug business, it is the antique carpet trade. <br /> <br />It is not only where people are willing to spend the most on a carpet they admire but also where dealers take the greatest risks. <br /> <br />Why risks?<br /> <br />Because to be successful, a dealer not only has to invest huge amounts of money in inventory. He or she also has to hope the global economy stays strong enough to create enough buyers to keep turning the inventory over and make the business prosper.<br /> <br />That's why Tea & Carpets welcomed the opportunity recently to interview one of the most successful people in the antique carpet trade, Jason Nazmiyal. <br /> <br />His New-York based company Nazmiyal Collection has been a leading name in the antique carpet world for decades. If anyone can describe the ins-and-outs of the business he can.<br /> <br />We started with this question: How much has the economic downturn affected the antique carpet market?<br /> <br />The answer is: a lot. Since 2001, he says, the antique market has been under heavy pressure. That's because the purchase of antiques is related to the performance of the stock market. When people's investments do well, they spend their extra earnings on luxury items, when not, not.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/antique-rugs/antique-agra-oriental-rug-41269-2434.cfm"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 249px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieCzbeikYjc4ecdFgBqoovEJU-IKgHk-RvMwmVvdqtVk0d64kKnoVk3kMikeQ-ZLtiEfHGISjDRvvtVIYllaj84JZnHz6VNcjfARewTEJtzrg4bM3mVyaCyMh-DfCNNLKhniX6QnBiUWM/s320/antique_agra_412692.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5617260300627306034" /></a>The goods Nazmiyal specializes in – room-sized decorative antique rugs – are luxury items running from $ 20,000 to $ 200,000. So, he has felt the pressure firsthand. <br /><br />Shown here is an antique Agra currently available from the <span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/index.cfm">Nazmiyal Collection</a></span></span>.<br /> <br />Buying antique rugs, Nazmiyal explains "is more about what people feel than what they need." And over the past years, when even CEOs have worried about losing their jobs, what many people have felt is the urge to be cautious.<br /> <br />But how that caution gets expressed in the rug market can be surprising. <br /> <br />What many interior decorators advised their clients to do during the worst of the downturn was to buy new rugs instead of antique ones, because they are less expensive. <br /> <br />And, as that caused antique rug inventories to pile up, many antique rug dealers followed suite. Rather than invest their capital in more inventory, they invested in producing new rugs themselves, instead.<br /> <br />Nazmiyal did not follow that strategy, but he says for many dealers it made economic sense. <br /> <br />Here's why: To sell a $ 25,000 antique rug, you have to have half a dozen similarly expensive pieces for the client to choose from. But to sell a room-sized new carpet you need only show a $ 200 weaving sample. <br /> <br />If the sample satisfies the client, weaving can go ahead with just a fifty percent deposit, with the rest to be paid when the rug is delivered.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/detail-image/?image=44192hires"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 243px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghf-ZVwE8QYt0-rK5DUfcxLnM_4Glq7KTFQ4RvG4tvWBDAVActouyxPsYjelGESTCSvazbZ1uv0CzpgDSHH3wPPVZgUZ00JeRZAuT3kvB1QS7AxTd1PpUZjWdLd4QSV2rdPOa3LZflOIg/s320/agra+flower.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5618511973744444178" /></a>Here is another antique Agra carpet, with a flower design, available from <span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/index.cfm">Nazmiyal Collection</a></span></span>.<br /><br />The Nazmiyal Collection weathered the storm without switching to new rugs because its inventory is large and it has an extensive website with global clients. But, perhaps most valuably, the company's long-standing reputation for quality assures designers and others seek it out.<br /><br />Today, with the economy showing signs of recovery, the antique carpet market is slowly stabilizing again. <br /> <br />Over the past six months, Nazmiyal says, the drift to new rugs has reversed and buyers are returning to vintage pieces.<br /> <br />The reasons they are returning are all the classic ones for which people value antiques. Compared to new rugs, antique rugs have greater interest of history and provenance, they have a patina that will take new carpets decades to acquire, and you don't have to wait six months for them to be woven. <br /> <br />There is another question that always fascinates people about the antique carpet business and that is the way it is influenced by changes of taste and style. <br /> <br />So, we asked how much tastes in antique rugs have changed over recent years and what is in demand now. <br /> <br />The answer, again, was surprising. Over the last 10 years in the United States , Nazmiyal says, decorators grew tired of busy Persian designs. They moved to East Turkestan rugs, for example, instead. Such rugs offered simpler designs and more monochromatic, muted colors. <br /> <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/antique-rugs/antique-khotan-oriental-rugs-42988-3384.cfm"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 156px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB0GP6LxJIQsMD2QVeDuyc-48s17Mm7v0u3I8UlHumGbRfFWW8oXNnj9ZgCfKW8mFiQjcvnLbamEu0GwsV5sXMCSn7_D82Mb4G87F6fzWcKVSWtl3cWYXCdEnZXAHiYa_t5Di-f0zvApI/s320/antique_khotan_persian_carpet_429881.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5617261456907620898" /></a>Here is an antique Khotan available from <span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/index.cfm">Nazmiyal Collection</a></span></span>.<br /><br />But over the past six months, things have shifted once again. Now high-end decorators are looking for traditional designs and bolder colors.<br /> <br />What drives the taste changes is a mystery. But the way it works is through the power of a handful of famous tastemakers. <br /> <br />Nazmiyal estimates that in New York City, there are about five "phenomenal designers" who are the trendsetters of our time and whom all the other designers watch. When their taste in fabrics, wallpapers, and other furnishings changes, so do the kinds of carpets the decorating world wants. <br /> <br />Interestingly, the designers themselves may or may not know much about the history of oriental carpets. "Some of the New York designers are so well trained to see beautiful things," he says, "that they don't need to know rug history and styles. They can just be confident of their own taste."<br /> <br />Does this mean that everywhere fashions change as if on cue? Not at all. There is still plenty of room for regional differences and there are variations in what kinds of antique rugs people want even from city to city.<br /><br />Nazmiyal says that in Atlanta, for example, there is equal demand for beautiful carpets with medallion or all-over designs. But in New York, decorators only want all-over designs because they feel medallion designs fit less flexibly with current styles. <br /> <br />Similarly, there are trans-Atlantic differences. <br /> <br />In Europe, where houses and apartments tend to be smaller than in the United States, a 9 x 12 foot carpet is about the maximum any room can absorb. That makes a big rug, like a Sultanabad or Hajji Jalili, less desirable. And it gives people reasons to prefer smaller yet still highly visible rugs, like Caucasians, instead.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/antique-rugs/sultanabad-rug-44640-3920.cfm"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 206px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJwBll1MHvap-SN0H-boJZKoFbSUAu5_kWWOdQc_rjfpy6YLL_-2PzXZrP_zY55xiDavASDpVS8k_ngEPq4O6wirr3iI0ZdG4KkwmvS3vZbQtNZhMXFdcziWiCbb4-KdyK5AXLnSfM5Zs/s320/sultanabad.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5617261850790767890" /></a>Here is an antique Sultanabad available from <span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/index.cfm">Nazmiyal Collection</a></span></span>.<br /><br />One could pose questions about the antique rug trade all day and still never finish. So, we ask a final question about something most people only dream of. That is: what rug do you select for your own house when you have virtually every possibility available in your inventory?<br /> <br />Nazmiyal says he has a mix. He keeps a silk and wool Tehrani woven in 1920-21 with blues and whites in his library. And an early Agra in his living room.<br /> <br />Then he has to laugh. Like many carpet enthusiasts, he has a small obstacle to bringing home ever more antique pieces, as much as he might want to.<br /> <br />"My wife likes new things, not old ones," he says. "So when I bring an antique rug home, it has to be clean and with a full pile and look like a new rug."<br /> <br />How familiar does that sound? Sometimes the husband is the collector, sometimes the wife, and always compromises have to be found.<br /> <br />"But over time," he adds, "she's come to like antique rugs much more. It only took 15 years."<br /> <br />May all families enjoy such peace. And thanks again to Jason Nazmiyal for sharing his experiences with us.<br /> <br /># <br /><a href="http://tea-and-carpets.blogspot.com/"><br />RETURN TO HOME</a><br /><br />#Tea and Carpetshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06607321259227169325noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804437195679232310.post-82341026644942141892011-05-14T01:44:00.001-07:002011-05-16T00:38:29.742-07:00Mughal Carpets And The Natural Beauty Of Flowers<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/antique-Mugal-rugs.html"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG0Ry2hVPki8G5pqeBVNl_luI1nfPdJnbAQDF4zrQLPaROMg_MjMFO8zsQUO5m22jLSqEwSIeP-aGsggut59Zc0Io8RGKCKYGaeQgQejIxzuTXjEYCby8pCOMOVN9HatEJcZUYV1w9-WU/s320/8036-Thumbnail-Antique-Mugal-Oriental-Carpets.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606493180628699058" /></a>NEW DELHI, May 15, 2011 – When Europeans discovered a direct sea route to India in 1497-8, they arrived just in time to witness the birth of one of the East's great empires.<br /><br />It was the Mughal Empire and it was the last of the waves of epic conquests by Turkic-Mongol warriors which for centuries shaped the history of so much of Eurasia.<br /><br />The empire the Mughals (or Moguls) created, beginning in 1526, so impressed Europeans with its wealth and power that the word 'mogul' has become a synonym in English for "tycoon," as in a Media Mogul or Banking Mogul.<br /><br />But the Mughal Empire also gave India one of its most enduring and internationally recognized artistic styles. That style is the decorating of objects of all kinds with patterns of naturally depicted flowers. <br /><br />This carpet, and the detail of it shown at the top of the page, show just how beautifully Mughal weavers portrayed flowers. The carpet is available to collectors from the <span style="font-weight:bold;"><a href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/"><span style="font-style:italic;">Nazmiyal Collection</span></a></span> in New York. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/antique-Mugal-rugs.html"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 234px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCqozkjileA3eBtKghbvnLyiMdzu2vlPOvMaAyEu9PXhf3h699VBFD9uSqDWvF-nTFEyLdVNNbChfK9Mnpfbq6u8cmc_jEI6aKSQGMF74f4G3SJ2Cvu3QRiskz4Kp0nmGJ1iC7Z-0_-NE/s320/8036-Antique-Mugal-Oriental-Carpets.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606493273493867250" /></a>Where did this style originate and how did it become the epitome of Mughal art? <br /><br />The origins can be traced to those of the Mughal Dynasty itself, which began with Babur, a blood descendant of both Timur and Chengis Khan. <br /><br />Born in 1483 in the Fergana Valley of present day Uzbekistan, he grew up in the fusion of Turkic-Mongol and Persian culture which then characterized court life across a vast band of Eurasia -- from Anatolia to Persia to Central Asia.<br /><br />This shared court culture put a premium on luxurious gardens and Babur personally built some of the most famous gardens of his time. The garden, which he built in Kabul, his first major conquest, still stands as one of the city's landmark parks and is the site of his tomb. <br /><br />But it was Babur's subsequent conquests of the Muslim sultanates of northern India that brought still more elements into the mix and created a uniquely Mughal artistic style. <br /><br />India's Muslim sultanates dated back to Islamic conquests centuries earlier. But their populations remained largely Hindu, and it was the fusion of Turkic-Mongol and Persian culture with Hindu aesthetics that would distinguish the Mughal style – and Mughal carpets – from the art of the other great eastern empires.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEkRG96Yck3zKFyTiSAt3D4H-oTUcE5pWLJHKWN446K_ll4XBhQlQNkmVkN8wy8F5c1oX8I4OttjZfDbmeaky6lWAlRBvFGZFMgJShXV02Nvg_ya7K8RI3X0zO8E79qOq_0JdN1oYeIgI/s1600/Mughal+Empire.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 231px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEkRG96Yck3zKFyTiSAt3D4H-oTUcE5pWLJHKWN446K_ll4XBhQlQNkmVkN8wy8F5c1oX8I4OttjZfDbmeaky6lWAlRBvFGZFMgJShXV02Nvg_ya7K8RI3X0zO8E79qOq_0JdN1oYeIgI/s320/Mughal+Empire.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606490557502149138" /></a>Here is a map showing the greatest extent of the Mughal Empire, which lasted from 1526 to 1858.<br /><br />The distinctly Mughal style did not emerge immediately. For decades, Mughal carpets were essentially "Persian style" carpets which took their design inspiration from Persian floral carpets while adding some Indian motifs, such as segmented blossoms, wisteria, or grape clusters. <br /><br />This Persian Style echoed the initially large presence of Safavid artists at the Mughal court. <br /><br />The Safavid artists' presence was due to a quirk of history. Babur's son, Humayun, lost his father's empire to usurpers and was sheltered for years by the Safavid Shah Tahmasp, who was a huge patron of the arts. After Humayun regained his throne and Shah Tahmasp turned austere in middle age, many of the Shah's finest artists moved to Humayun's court instead and became its leading lights.<br /><br />Nevertheless, a distinctly Mughal "Flower Style" of naturally depicted plants and flowers gradually gained ground.<br /><br />During the reign of the next Mughal emperor, Akbar, blossoms and vines, even whole plants, became commonly represented in Indian art. And Akbar's successor, Jahangir, made a special trip to Kashmir in Spring just to admire the valleys in bloom.<br /><br />After returning from his trip, Jahangir famously recited an ode celebrating the natural beauty he had seen and ordered one of his most accomplished miniaturists, Mansur, to paint more than a hundred portraits of flowers. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTlzio5P0BrcjGBriFOBwkD4w31uzLCPqhuz_3Y6fSScGzUc2RCJL7xnqlvN6Y3S9tzhj8PGjjHNMWUl4sYHKNr_ZUClGellAADea6TTbUVOi2OpGKzs_HaZm1pX_f0yiZbvIt_ur0kSY/s1600/Mansur+tulip.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 216px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTlzio5P0BrcjGBriFOBwkD4w31uzLCPqhuz_3Y6fSScGzUc2RCJL7xnqlvN6Y3S9tzhj8PGjjHNMWUl4sYHKNr_ZUClGellAADea6TTbUVOi2OpGKzs_HaZm1pX_f0yiZbvIt_ur0kSY/s320/Mansur+tulip.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606490719637775970" /></a>One of Mansur's paintings is shown here.<br /><br />By the time of the following emperor, Shah Jahan (1628-1658), who is most famous for the Taj Mahal, the rapidly developing Flower Style was already spreading across Mughal art. <br /><br />Patterns of naturally depicted flowers could be found on objects ranging from inlaid stonework, to the borders of miniature paintings, to ceramics and carpets.<br /><br />Daniel Walker describes how the Flower Style came to dominate Mughal carpet design in his book "Flowers Underfoot, Indian Carpets of the Mughal Era." <br /><br />In the book, published in conjunction with an exhibit of Mughal Carpets at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1997, he writes:<br /><br />"It is true that in the earlier years of court carpet production, from about 1580 to 1630 or so, the patterns of Indian carpets were heavily dependent upon Persian models (nevertheless displaying an unmistakably Indian aesthetic). <br /><br />"But then a particular fashion for formally but naturalistically depicted flowers came into vogue. This truly indigenous style came to dominate Indian ornamentation in all media and even influence foreign artistic production, particularly in Iran, perhaps as a result of carpet or textile imports."<br /><br />But developing a unique Flower Style was not the Mughals' only contribution to carpets. <br /><br />The Mughal weavers also made extraordinary use of color to achieve naturalistic effects, including "mixing" of two colors to achieve a third one. They did so by juxtaposing knots of different colors, usually in checkerboard fashion, to trick the eye. <br /><br />At the same time, the weavers used color shading to highlight the edges of plants and other objects and give them a three-dimensional appearance. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-1JcdgK41SJhiUFNttP2MMDsVpMjwdwDHXuNsC-B9Qzc56SC0XJkcptL3Sma1n2KRLykwpoP3ECsyVgG-lVCrghaEIAfVv2b16UbDB21Q-1mdJnOS9RELHEXpP6Ua1W4TUWqQYEX37b8/s1600/Mughal+Qanat.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-1JcdgK41SJhiUFNttP2MMDsVpMjwdwDHXuNsC-B9Qzc56SC0XJkcptL3Sma1n2KRLykwpoP3ECsyVgG-lVCrghaEIAfVv2b16UbDB21Q-1mdJnOS9RELHEXpP6Ua1W4TUWqQYEX37b8/s320/Mughal+Qanat.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606490862260727010" /></a>Both these techniques, Walker notes, were rarely found in carpets outside of India.<br /><br />The weavers did not always strive for realism in their portraits of flowers. They also sometimes combined the blossoms of different plants on a single stem to create imaginary plants of great beauty, too.<br /><br />Here is a Mughal carpet with a motif of just one flower set in an apparent niche. <br /><br />Such Mughal niche rugs are frequently called prayer rugs but many art experts believe they were more likely used as qanats, or screens, to surround the tents of an emperor's encampment when he was traveling.<br /><br />One more unique characteristic of Mughal carpets was that weavers did not use silk for the high-knot count they needed to draw their flowers. <br /><br />Most often, they used pashmina, the extremely fine wool undercoat of the Himalayan mountain goat. As Walker notes, that made India "the only carpet weaving society where silk was not the luxury material of preference."<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhArqEqXaAoU7fTN7Mmr6dGIH29nbmme8-DKCPxPqJLv6btIzg8nOJC5Z_fMEFuxt2hAxuIOFdp7C8YvXTEb5MzOMey3f6y0rQ6xXVlpS_zeEA2nOyuez0cO5DOtGPeB8TYYP-cR0ywfdc/s1600/Himalayan+mountain+goat.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhArqEqXaAoU7fTN7Mmr6dGIH29nbmme8-DKCPxPqJLv6btIzg8nOJC5Z_fMEFuxt2hAxuIOFdp7C8YvXTEb5MzOMey3f6y0rQ6xXVlpS_zeEA2nOyuez0cO5DOtGPeB8TYYP-cR0ywfdc/s320/Himalayan+mountain+goat.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606491671036345906" /></a>The source of the pashmina was western Tibet but, because it was imported through Kashmir, Europeans long referred to it as "cashmere," mistakenly assuming Kashmir was its source.<br /><br />Europeans began to become familiar with Mughal carpets by the early 1600s, very shortly after English and Dutch ships followed the Portuguese trail to India in the last decade of the sixteenth century. <br /><br />Records show that Britain's East India Company sent a first shipment of carpets back to England in 1615. The Dutch started to ship carpets from India in about 1625.<br /><br />But the Mughal carpets which first appeared in Europe were not the Flower Style carpets so sought-after today. They were the Persian Style ones which at that time still dominated Mughal weaving. <br /><br />Ironically, the European taste for Mughal Persian Style carpets continued long after the Flower Style became dominant in the empire itself. That was because the European market for centuries had thought of 'oriental carpets' only in terms of what was most familiar to it -- Anatolian and Persian styles -- and imported accordingly. <br /><br />European paintings of the time – particularly Dutch and British paintings – continued to frequently portray wealthy families with a prized oriental carpet displayed on a table near them. <br /><br />But precisely because Europeans tended to import Mughal carpets that were Persian Style, it is often hard for art experts today to know if the carpets depicted were made in Safavid Iran or in Mughal India. <br /><br />Had the families acquired a Flower Style carpet, instead, knowing its provenance would be easy.<br /><br />#<br /><br /><a href="http://tea-and-carpets.blogspot.com/">RETURN TO HOME PAGE</a><br /><br />#Tea and Carpetshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06607321259227169325noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804437195679232310.post-91512629324396502112011-04-12T06:59:00.000-07:002011-04-22T22:02:08.536-07:00The Silk Roads Of The Sea: Dhows, Junks, and Caravels<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0_-Z9ysw4ZRzH6oT9UeDLNYFkDFXSo5ByNCr2ZSHcC-ecJUktVQMLZZGQeBrfh1otaMTIVi-dULFN9Wg5DSsmH-xwn6yWIaQyKgEIHFCjGSS7vxAvNVOADpvPELxf6uSxNoql9tBBJRU/s1600/Portuguese+carpet.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0_-Z9ysw4ZRzH6oT9UeDLNYFkDFXSo5ByNCr2ZSHcC-ecJUktVQMLZZGQeBrfh1otaMTIVi-dULFN9Wg5DSsmH-xwn6yWIaQyKgEIHFCjGSS7vxAvNVOADpvPELxf6uSxNoql9tBBJRU/s320/Portuguese+carpet.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5595347011107098434" /></a>LISBON, April 16, 2011 -- When one thinks of the ancient carpet trade, it is the Silk Roads and camels which first come to mind.<br /><br />But the trade routes that connected East and West were not just overland. Many of the same goods that moved across Eurasia by caravans also moved along the coasts by ship. And these Silk Roads maritime routes have a fascinating history of their own.<br /><br />Shown here is a "Portuguese" carpet woven in Persia or India at the end of the 16th century and most likely commissioned by European merchants. <br /><br />Such carpets were woven at a time when Europeans had still only recently begun trading with the East by sea. The carpets are named after their Portuguese-looking ships and sailors which, some observers believe, illustrate the biblical story of Jonah cast overboard and swallowed by a whale. <br /><br />Just how and when the vast chain of sea-trading links connecting the western and eastern worlds got started is impossible to known. But by the time of the Romans, it was already well established. The sea-trade ran across the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, across the Indian Ocean, and up the rim of the Pacific using a variety of boats suited to local conditions.<br /><br />The Romans' galleys and bathtub-shaped sailing ships went only as far east as Alexandria, at the landlocked end of the calm sea they called Mare Nostrum. There, they picked up goods transported overland from the Red Sea, which had much rougher sailing conditions altogether.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMKOE7jFGzeTuDPRZRxsUIt12XsVGjQkuZ5PNOxpFoW-C0zYQzDBFoobuChDzC_joTAvL9v9tWTXAaLbkpDlq5BsGXPedFRTS9ihkCefnA5fCxhawawMjMYyweps7XvOVhmwwifHB3u64/s1600/Map+of+SIlk+Road+Sea+Routes.png"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 192px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMKOE7jFGzeTuDPRZRxsUIt12XsVGjQkuZ5PNOxpFoW-C0zYQzDBFoobuChDzC_joTAvL9v9tWTXAaLbkpDlq5BsGXPedFRTS9ihkCefnA5fCxhawawMjMYyweps7XvOVhmwwifHB3u64/s320/Map+of+SIlk+Road+Sea+Routes.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5594982825781165938" border="0" /></a>The Red Sea, and beyond that the Indian Ocean, was the world of Arab dhows. <br /><br />They were rigged to sail tightly against the wind as well as before it, so they could hug the ocean coastline and minimize the risk of going far out to sea. The dhows connected Arabia with Persia and India and went as far as the Malay Peninsula.<br /><br />Beyond the Malay Peninsula, still another world began, that of ocean-going Chinese junks. They too, could run against the wind or before it, but they were much bigger than dhows and could stand very heavy seas without being swamped. They connected Southeast Asia with China's main ports of Canton and, farther north, Hangzhou.<br /><br />What did this ancient trading network, which remained virtually unchanged until European ships moved east a thousand years later, carry?<br /><br />The most important goods of all were spices, which were highly valued by people across Eurasia. The spices were prized as luxurious flavorings for food, as the most effective ingredients of contemporary medicines, and as perfumes for secular, medicinal and religious use.<br /><br />The spices were cultivated in Arabia (cinnamon and frankincense), in India (pepper and sugar) and in the islands of Indonesia (nutmeg, mace, and cloves). The variety of spices traded was staggering, with just the four biggest being pepper, cinnamon, ginger and saffron but also including such items as galangal, which only recently has become known again in the West thanks to Thai cuisine.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNArOxaXT1vV7hKxVRfcNk04k-zvsszFQD-cisiT0iIWxhx1LowTGkPLpIUGyQ1q8QTAnLfpfDtzJsy2WOOq-4IgNMLrOaDYRvqO_6gR_PwepxQPO9hSh7gJHJoVBkyTt9P_89BTvVtmw/s1600/spices.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 197px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNArOxaXT1vV7hKxVRfcNk04k-zvsszFQD-cisiT0iIWxhx1LowTGkPLpIUGyQ1q8QTAnLfpfDtzJsy2WOOq-4IgNMLrOaDYRvqO_6gR_PwepxQPO9hSh7gJHJoVBkyTt9P_89BTvVtmw/s320/spices.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5595762896343122322" /></a>But spices were far from the only things traded by sea. So, too, were silks, ceramics, cast iron objects and, one can almost certainly assume, oriental carpets.<br /><br />Over the centuries, many of the East's greatest carpet-producing courts, including those of the Safavid and Mughal Empires, had access to both land and sea-trading routes thanks to their Indian Ocean ports.<br /><br />The sea often could offer merchants a surer and safer way than roads to get their products to distant markets.<br /><br />On land, the Silk Roads crossed some of the highest mountains in the world, passed through a multitude of tax-hungry fiefdoms and kingdoms, and required that pack animals get regular fodder and rest.<br /><br />But on the sea, things could be easier. The captain of a dhow with crew of ten men could use the monsoon winds to make the round trip from the Red Sea to India in 18 months and carry a cargo of twenty to fifty tons. All along the way he could use ports that were in the hands of Muslim rulers who shared a common interest in trade and where traders spoke Arabic as their lingua franca.<br /><br />Here is a photo of an Arab dhow built in last century but whose design, using wooden planks held together with ropes rather than nails to better survive crashes against coastal rocks, is centuries' old.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR72njybPdjKUrEma1v7u9BPr3jiw7E2u6OYKBzyW4LVHEhkWafi_5ZYmE15AEAT9jTccs3UmgbE8Tka8IFAHkEzB66RrcJHJqiVwOSqE5wTppBj4tJ9sN3EtamMCg5ne9hgmqIg9qu0o/s1600/Dhow.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 201px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR72njybPdjKUrEma1v7u9BPr3jiw7E2u6OYKBzyW4LVHEhkWafi_5ZYmE15AEAT9jTccs3UmgbE8Tka8IFAHkEzB66RrcJHJqiVwOSqE5wTppBj4tJ9sN3EtamMCg5ne9hgmqIg9qu0o/s320/Dhow.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5594983314540383826" border="0" /></a>The eastern sea routes, and particularly the spice trade, were so profitable that any nations that controlled them could be assured of vast riches. But no single power tried to monopolize them until the rise of Europe's great maritime powers in the 15th century.<br /><br />Those powers were far away on Europe's Atlantic coast and resented the costly chain of brokers connecting them with the eastern trade. They dreamed of becoming direct participants themselves but for centuries had no way of doing so.<br /><br />Ironically, their moment came when Europe in general began to learn more about the geography of Eurasia by traveling the Silk Road land routes.<br /><br />During the Pax Mongolica of the 13th and 14th centuries, when travel on the Silk Road was safest, the first European travelers since Alexander the Great reached India and Marco Polo went as far as China. The tales they brought back inspired the Portuguese to look for route to India south around Africa and the Spanish for a route across the Atlantic.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiosmBbkbgAbZDawKd5oyXuxsyAB4pYdns9TiZeQeTHrA7hAUk-Sh9soa0dFgX7AbM6Q30eLzPqLdRew_Jnpw2fhMNC5J9Wr3dhuy0wRTxP0VVPO4qbFJAy41x5QPyt8AQJ-ApsozciZDc/s1600/Europe%2527s+sea+route+to+India.png"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 228px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiosmBbkbgAbZDawKd5oyXuxsyAB4pYdns9TiZeQeTHrA7hAUk-Sh9soa0dFgX7AbM6Q30eLzPqLdRew_Jnpw2fhMNC5J9Wr3dhuy0wRTxP0VVPO4qbFJAy41x5QPyt8AQJ-ApsozciZDc/s320/Europe%2527s+sea+route+to+India.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5594982180910436802" border="0" /></a>In 1497, just five years after Columbus crossed the Atlantic to discover the New World, the Portuguese captain Vasco da Gama sailed with four ships past the Cape of Good Hope and began feeling his way up the east coast of Africa. In the African-Arab trading port of Malindi (near Mombasa) he found a local navigator to guide him across the Indian Ocean to Calicut and its huge entrepots of pepper.<br /><br />For the expedition, Da Gama used the kind of ocean-going caravel that both the Portuguese and the Spanish favored for their early voyages of discovery. It has a shallow draft to chart unknown waters, can sail with or against the wind, and has cargo space for voyages of up to a year.<br /><br />After Da Gama's success, a larger Portuguese expedition with 13 ships followed and, when the six surviving ones returned to Lisbon laden with pepper in 1501, it was clear to all of Europe that the world would never be the same. Paul Freedman, author the 2008 book Out of the East, Spices and the Medieval Imagination, quotes Venice's envoy in Portugal giving this typical reaction of the time:<br /><br />"If this routes continues – and it already appears to me easy to accomplish – the king of Portugal might be called the king of money … the entire city [of Venice] remains astonished that in our day such a new route would be discovered, never known or heard of by our ancestors," the envoy, Priuli, wrote.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxkpDykiNIhx27bYqwUVZdEj4fMFDdPoVf96XZckAMRiDBtVDWlQ_VCh7TZt9Q2bmHYsk-F3W0TK0tP1lGI44DSrjzEb5QNrGjmKql5gls1grVvxMLwpSWggRf5FilEJ1z9lkxvIh6Ds0/s1600/St.+Francis+Xavier%252C+Goa.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 290px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxkpDykiNIhx27bYqwUVZdEj4fMFDdPoVf96XZckAMRiDBtVDWlQ_VCh7TZt9Q2bmHYsk-F3W0TK0tP1lGI44DSrjzEb5QNrGjmKql5gls1grVvxMLwpSWggRf5FilEJ1z9lkxvIh6Ds0/s320/St.+Francis+Xavier%252C+Goa.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5594985237485178594" /></a>The Portuguese were able to swiftly dominate the Indian Ocean trade because they had superior firepower and, in Freedman's words, "a willingness, even eagerness, to use force." Fresh from wars with the Moors, they hoped to drive Muslim traders entirely from the sea trade.<br /><br />Portugal did not have the resources to do that, but it did set up its own trading network that eventually extended from Brazil to Macau on the Chinese coast and other Atlantic powers soon followed suit. <br /><br />Pictured here is the Basilica Bom Jesus, a Portuguese church erected in Goa, on the west coast of India, which was Lisbon's headquarters in the East.<br /><br />Curiously, the one world power that could have pre-empted Europe's domination of the sea routes never did so. That was China, which itself sent a huge fleet of war and cargo ships into the Indian Ocean in seven expeditions beginning in 1405 – almost a century before Portugal rounded Africa.<br /><br />The expeditionary fleets, commanded by Admiral Zheng He, dwarfed Portugal's first voyages of discovery in every respect. His first expedition included 317 vessels and the largest of the ocean-going junks – the treasure ships -- had nine masts on their 122-meter-long (400-foot-long) decks. By contrast, the largest of Da Gama's ships had four masts and was about 30.5 meters (100 feet)long.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2XIobGdHt17sCCIoYEilGGIgkB7MWm7L9YTzr3opAETY3v6nWzJNSE_o5A24lH_fb8io4XtmQgoquCs6hjh50ETCnY97x0V_HEvBYstjtdvEutbj1ES5VLh4dHrVDgPH4UGh2P9_agIw/s1600/treasure+ship.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 202px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2XIobGdHt17sCCIoYEilGGIgkB7MWm7L9YTzr3opAETY3v6nWzJNSE_o5A24lH_fb8io4XtmQgoquCs6hjh50ETCnY97x0V_HEvBYstjtdvEutbj1ES5VLh4dHrVDgPH4UGh2P9_agIw/s320/treasure+ship.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5594985451199712530" /></a>This picture shows the relative scale of a treasure ship and a European vessel like those of Da Gama and Columbus.<br /><br />The Chinese expeditions carried silks, porcelain, and spices and were intended to display the splendor and power of the new Ming dynasty. The expeditions went as far as Persia, Arabia and down the east coast of Africa, and states and leaders that recognized Ming supremacy and offered tribute were rewarded with diplomatic recognition and trading rights.<br /><br />But the Chinese fleets, which carried artisans, scholars and naturalists as well as sailors and troops, were never about monopolizing trade. Rather they were sent out to explore the world and acquaint it with the Mings. After the last expedition in 1433, China's rulers began to regard the expeditions as too costly and no longer useful. They were confident trade would always flow to China anyway as the Center of the World.<br /><br />China's approach to sea trade did not change the world, but Europe's did. The Europeans' trading outposts became colonies and their wooden sailing ships evolved into giant ocean steamships. The seas became crisscrossed by ever more vessels, laying the foundations for today's globalized world economy.<br /><br />These days, there is no doubt that oriental carpets, along with many other goods once traded along the Silk Roads, move west by both sea and land. Most of the handmade carpets exported to Europe arrive at Germany's port of Hamburg, from which many are shipped on to the United States.<br /><br />The ocean-going carpets are memorialized in Hamburg by one of the few public monuments to the carpet trade that exists in the world today. It is a bridge covered with a stone mosaic in the pattern of a Persian carpet and it lies in the heart of the port's old warehouse district, the Speicherstadt. (For more see: <span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://tea-and-carpets.blogspot.com/2008/04/carpet-made-of-stone-honors-hamburgs.html">Carpet Made of Stone Honors Hamburg As Europe's Oriental Rug Port</a></span>.)<br /> <br />#<br /><br /><a href="http://tea-and-carpets.blogspot.com/">RETURN TO HOME PAGE</a><br /><br />#Tea and Carpetshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06607321259227169325noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804437195679232310.post-59176510881766952032011-03-26T02:03:00.000-07:002012-02-14T02:47:43.831-08:00Kuba Weavings: The Art And Appeal Of Africa's Rug-Like Raffia Textiles<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAgnbWX0Y8bqDJxIfxIP3mv9GPCyFjSlXd8D_NVz7X-H3bkwIRbIbs8_1Ti5X2fdK7pV1NLmyYA4_lBKBs-HEFvVV4ymDFNOoQuQj-UVii69awfKSjktidYnp9hos4qHKNTrDWbpWl4nA/s1600/Kuba+long3.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 186px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAgnbWX0Y8bqDJxIfxIP3mv9GPCyFjSlXd8D_NVz7X-H3bkwIRbIbs8_1Ti5X2fdK7pV1NLmyYA4_lBKBs-HEFvVV4ymDFNOoQuQj-UVii69awfKSjktidYnp9hos4qHKNTrDWbpWl4nA/s320/Kuba+long3.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5588312199386830290" /></a>KINSHASA, March 26, 2011 -- It's not always easy to tell the difference between a fabric and a rug.<br /><br />It should be, of course, thanks to some simple rules of thumb. <br /><br />For example, fabrics are used for clothing and upholstery, while rugs mostly go on the floor. <br /><br />And while both are woven, fabrics usually don't have a pile like knotted rugs do. <br /><br />But then one runs into an extraordinary form of weaving which breaks all these simple rules and makes collectors wonder how to display it when they get it home. <br /><br />That something is a boldly patterned, pile-cloth which is woven from wool-like palm fibers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. <br /><br />It goes by the name of the people who make it: the Kuba.<br /><br />Most collectors – and this unusual art form has many – elect to display Kuba weavings by hanging them on the wall, like a prized small rug.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBh1sQ_zuwE75zgCHn_YXsk1svqkKdwYtagYmeusecynLrRozK1hw4Hv_RBP2YauXZGargmFHstLjYWvcrw5-MaixBAM1ErEVtbguXqPu-PatVjSK0oNwq_kFZ6LfvdwlaHSm2r-R6Iek/s1600/framed+Kuba+cloth.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 299px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBh1sQ_zuwE75zgCHn_YXsk1svqkKdwYtagYmeusecynLrRozK1hw4Hv_RBP2YauXZGargmFHstLjYWvcrw5-MaixBAM1ErEVtbguXqPu-PatVjSK0oNwq_kFZ6LfvdwlaHSm2r-R6Iek/s320/framed+Kuba+cloth.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5588312358169651778" /></a>But the Kuba people themselves weave the cloth to make ceremonial dresses worn by both men and women. <br /><br />For them, it is clearly a fabric and one so prized that people wear the dresses only to attend major events like funerals. <br /><br />When a person dies, he is buried in one of his dresses so his ancestors will recognize him by the family pattern he wears.<br /><br />Where does one begin to tell the history of Kuba weaving? Perhaps by noting that it is an ancient tradition about which little is known beyond the last hundred years. <br /><br />The reason for the short time-frame is that unlike other fabrics, the fine palm fibers from which the cloth is made is as degradable as any other plant. Unless it is carefully preserved in dry conditions, it rarely outlasts its own creator's generation.<br /><br />Here is a grove of raffia palms, showing the size of the leaves from which the fibers are made.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAyxL8Dv9ZMUho8WXmo3g7vcf7oaERr5c1A-Pffo_4mHrJindyBL3Wrqrs1AK5CIIvpeZz4LZWq2cUv7Lm4cvJvKwmAnZzKbxV6coowv6g1o7hcoW3cssfeHuHRaylQRUxGkzmVFlceQ0/s1600/raffia+palm+trees.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAyxL8Dv9ZMUho8WXmo3g7vcf7oaERr5c1A-Pffo_4mHrJindyBL3Wrqrs1AK5CIIvpeZz4LZWq2cUv7Lm4cvJvKwmAnZzKbxV6coowv6g1o7hcoW3cssfeHuHRaylQRUxGkzmVFlceQ0/s320/raffia+palm+trees.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5588312490967951634" /></a>Ephemeral or not, the Kuba weavings are powerful enough that they have long been prized as trade items by other peoples living around the Kuba's home region. <br /><br />That region is between the Kasai and Sunkuru rivers, in the west-central part of the DR Congo (formerly Zaire), in a vast area of savannah and forest land that is reachable with a long boat journey from Kinshasa to the river port town of Ilebo.<br /><br />The subgroup of the Kuba considered to be the best weavers of all is the Shoowa. They were recorded as living here as early as the 17th century.<br /><br />Margaret Blechman, author of "Discover Shoowa Design," a booklet prepared for the Smithsonian Institution's display of raffia textiles at the National Museum for African Arts in 1988, describes the cloths and their creators this way:<br /><br />"In the past, raffia textiles were used as money. The Shoowa exchanged them for other goods. Raffia textiles are still worn, enjoyed for their beauty, and kept as treasured possessions.<br /><br />"For men, a woven and embroidered raffia strip may be used as a decorative border on a wrapper worn for special occasions. For women, several squares of raffia cloth sewn together made a wraparound skirt. At funerals, particularly court funerals great numbers of raffia textiles may be displayed to honor the deceased."<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyEc8OBMODpOqTvZiBwnRdkVLUnpwqMpJmJS_W-VOsdE2QikDtFLm6I9ljMKtV0IzcvTfsOsxy7cGfGsxJpngHLh9m893pcpw2jBSae1l4ZgTSmKQ2kHpc2Z-3erhYyktrpm3Xn_y-vjM/s1600/Kuba+court.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyEc8OBMODpOqTvZiBwnRdkVLUnpwqMpJmJS_W-VOsdE2QikDtFLm6I9ljMKtV0IzcvTfsOsxy7cGfGsxJpngHLh9m893pcpw2jBSae1l4ZgTSmKQ2kHpc2Z-3erhYyktrpm3Xn_y-vjM/s320/Kuba+court.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5588312669645311282" /></a>Here is a photo of the Kuba court taken in the mid 1900s. <br /><br />The first Europeans did not reach the Kuba kingdom until 1890. When they did, they were immediately struck by its elaborate codes of ceremony and dress. So much so, that photo sessions with western magazines like "Life" became de rigeur, with Kuba kings using the opportunity to further the reputation of the Kuba as the foremost artists in central Africa.<br /><br />The massive amounts of decorative bead-work visible in the photo attests to the wealth the kingdom acquired from trade with neighboring peoples. <br /><br />The beads themselves are a legacy of the European slave trade, when glass-makers first in Venice and later also in several northern cities manufactured vast quantities of decorative beads as exchange currency to use in Africa and the New World. The slave trade, based on the coasts, did not directly reach the interior Kuba lands but the bead-based economy it created spanned the continent.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifv6Ve8sczXviw8G-w8LbWb8hyKGLp9rsIqTENGNjdDwwO5lfwHK4YSQxbxBMXbnG4bsQNG41gmO0Y388q-6D31VqkjsmopxF0xAu7Uo7eJlyRPwciLssV7gxhgxw30MRu3rGMONCOjUQ/s1600/shoowa+cloth.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 178px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifv6Ve8sczXviw8G-w8LbWb8hyKGLp9rsIqTENGNjdDwwO5lfwHK4YSQxbxBMXbnG4bsQNG41gmO0Y388q-6D31VqkjsmopxF0xAu7Uo7eJlyRPwciLssV7gxhgxw30MRu3rGMONCOjUQ/s320/shoowa+cloth.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5588312832188002994" /></a><br />To make their rug-like fabrics, the Kuba pound palm fibers until they become soft and threadlike and as easy to dye as wool. The loops of the fine threads are trapped between a warp and weft of sturdier fibers using a loom, and the loops are later cut and trimmed to form an even pile. <br /><br />Each weaver -- it can be a man or a woman – decides individually whether to make a cloth with a uniform design or vary the designs in midstream, even several times. Traditionally, they do not use preliminary sketches.<br /><br />What all the weavers do have in common is an agreed vocabulary of shapes, each with its name. Here are just a few: an intertwined loop (called Imbol, or basketworking); a hexagon with or without smaller hexagons inside (Iyul, or tortoise); and a triangle with two angled arcs (Lakiik, or eyebrows). <br /><br />The shapes can be combined to create intricate mazes that constantly surprise the eye by attracting it in different directions.<br /><br />After Europeans found the Kuba lands, Kuba textiles began to regularly reach art dealers in Brussels and Paris, who sold them as "African velvets" in the 1920s. Among the artists in Paris who saw them in shops or museums and were particularly drawn to them was Henri Matisse. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBcAiTFanNMH_m4BqgZ4xDzv3r_tizToyTKFk3RCzCgrBDqMC40qtedN18MsKDRC0it_mvhbVv0uxG4jvQeoz0Kj9SLR47qnxtfkPNTmmATzj9kSH3fFUTg0Ii2972cI8uJfo1-j-tP48/s1600/snow+flowers.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 154px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBcAiTFanNMH_m4BqgZ4xDzv3r_tizToyTKFk3RCzCgrBDqMC40qtedN18MsKDRC0it_mvhbVv0uxG4jvQeoz0Kj9SLR47qnxtfkPNTmmATzj9kSH3fFUTg0Ii2972cI8uJfo1-j-tP48/s320/snow+flowers.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5588313025383972994" /></a>Matisse, who was born into a family of textile makers and had a life-long interest in both painting and fabrics, hung panels of Kuba textiles along his studio walls next to the bark cloth he brought back from his 1930s trip to the South Seas. <br /><br />He wrote in letters to his sister that he often looked at the panels for long periods, waiting for design ideas to come to him. <br /><br />Art historians say that Matisse's correspondence indicates that the Kuba designs may have been the inspiration for the paper cutouts that were his final major works, such as his 1951 'Snow Flowers'. <br /><br />The website of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art notes in an article entitled 'African Influences on Modern Art' that in his cutout collages Matisse blends "a vivid color palette with the allover patterning of the textiles to produce abstract floral forms free-floating in space, creating perspectival shifts between foreground and background."<br /><br />The abstract patterns displayed in Kuba cloth are equally believed to have served as a source of inspiration for artists such as Klee, Picasso, and Braque.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTSvtDOeq6GFzQ6EKzVEj3D5dcVfWrC4yThoQ4Aqz9nq0KDcso_8Ccg2aUFKQNs0pDX4dTC0de-nVzRQBzavP5c0DTeKgnoKy6jQ2m4ZUhnBu8L9gDeEAjgkjQm3_dOzO2belrGdyrYM8/s1600/Tibetan+ShoowA.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTSvtDOeq6GFzQ6EKzVEj3D5dcVfWrC4yThoQ4Aqz9nq0KDcso_8Ccg2aUFKQNs0pDX4dTC0de-nVzRQBzavP5c0DTeKgnoKy6jQ2m4ZUhnBu8L9gDeEAjgkjQm3_dOzO2belrGdyrYM8/s320/Tibetan+ShoowA.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5588313177513550946" /></a>Probably it should be no surprise that in recent years some rug makers have explored recreating Kuba designs in wool and silk. <br /><br />Here is one example sold by Landry & Arcari in Boston. The "Shoowa" is a 100 knot rug using Tibetan wool, mohair, and silk and woven in Nepal. It is approximately 6 feet by 8 feet 6 inches in size. (See '<a href="http://blog.landryandarcari.com/bid/10077/Afro-Tibetan-Fusion-Rugs">Afro-Tibetan Fusion Rugs</a>' at Landry & Arcari's blog.)<br /><br />#<br /><br /><a href="http://tea-and-carpets.blogspot.com/">RETURN TO HOME</a><br /><br />#<br /><br />Related Links:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/aima/hd_aima.htm">African Influences In European Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art </a><br /><br /><a href="http://gsuvisualartsgallery.blogspot.com/2008/12/kuba-people.html">The Kuba People, Governors' State University</a><br /><br />Kuba Fabrics Online:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.marlamallett.com/kuba.htm">Marla Mallet Textiles and Tribal Oriental Rugs</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.africanart.com/framedkubacloth.aspx">AfricanArt.com</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.textilesofafrica.com/c_all/110_shoowa.html">Textiles of Africa</a><br /><br /><a href="http://ethnicarts.com/textiles-african-kuba-cloth-c-2_54">Ethnic Arts</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.nigerbend.com/">The Niger Bend</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.textilearts.com/africa/18465af.html">Textile Arts</a><br /><br /><a href="http://mysite.verizon.net/vze6w7hd/images-nemostreasures/id2.html">Kanda African Art</a><br /><br />#Tea and Carpetshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06607321259227169325noreply@blogger.com39tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804437195679232310.post-63848909131025277022010-12-11T03:07:00.000-08:002011-05-21T01:38:36.213-07:00Why Chinese Carpets, Born On The Steppes, Have Classical Chinese Designs<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAbdrEI-POphBwNuWZBAje9D1tUvH65GTPgQp9ayzPS5dOGdpS8lDVmE4geUdL_GUEQGYVhiUB7S5iKy6vCb8gjZzokihRA0ryjumVt0LqRSIy4NYkThtJTLFO20R55Ebttrc1CObkLQw/s1600/NIgnxia+2.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 262px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAbdrEI-POphBwNuWZBAje9D1tUvH65GTPgQp9ayzPS5dOGdpS8lDVmE4geUdL_GUEQGYVhiUB7S5iKy6vCb8gjZzokihRA0ryjumVt0LqRSIy4NYkThtJTLFO20R55Ebttrc1CObkLQw/s320/NIgnxia+2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5549380836846375938" /></a>BEIJING, Dec. 18, 2010 – Like the other countries of the ancient Silk Roads, China has a rich carpet tradition.<br /><br />But it is a younger heritage than those of Central and South Asia or the Middle East and very much unlike them.<br /><br />Because the first pile carpets in China seem to have been woven only some 500 years ago – in the 15th century -- it seems clear pile carpet weaving arrived to China from elsewhere. <br /><br />The best guess is that the technique traveled up the Silk Road into northwestern China from neighboring East Turkestan. <br /><br />Northwestern China was, and is, a vast steppe land peopled mostly by Turkic-Mongol peoples. At that time, these steppe lands, which today include Inner Mongolia, were outside the Great Wall protecting China proper.<br /><br />So, the early carpets were not ethnically "Chinese" -- in the sense of the Han Chinese who lived within the wall (outlined in red here).<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_CKp8gqeW3OdjzNbiJQxVvTswZTn0OotN3hBwX7AKluL0kpRTL_7muy_8jil35O-i7e_hed8aiu3m3r3NhGsvbNeaBa-xI27UDDGxyCaShqNcfjnuIyoqKTs_FXvRcXu899IFo23u0nY/s1600/Great_Wall_of_China_location_map.PNG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 210px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_CKp8gqeW3OdjzNbiJQxVvTswZTn0OotN3hBwX7AKluL0kpRTL_7muy_8jil35O-i7e_hed8aiu3m3r3NhGsvbNeaBa-xI27UDDGxyCaShqNcfjnuIyoqKTs_FXvRcXu899IFo23u0nY/s320/Great_Wall_of_China_location_map.PNG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5549381092359252498" /></a>But for reasons that still fascinate historians, they almost immediately became a medium for Chinese – not nomadic – art. <br /><br />And it is that quality which makes Chinese carpets so unlike their more "oriental" relatives.<br /><br />Carpet scholars Muray L. Eiland Jr. and Muray Eiland III write in their book Oriental Carpets (1998) that "although it is possible that the pile carpet is not indigenous to China and was introduced from Central Asia, its designs have become as classically Chinese as those of textiles of porcelain. <br /><br />"The same floral forms, of lotus and chrysanthemum, appear repeatedly, while the same simple devices of frets and swastikas are common in the borders. There is a lavish style of mythical animals and scrolling vines and more styles of the repetition of simple geometric figures."<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/antique-Chinese-rugs.html"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 384px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj4E1uljMrm2NAOp3223_eG6vrOpbuaUo1G5q1MO18kI90ei9GIVArwCElFYgU1ZTmqal3oiN9XPMyrBeT5OOg_MIObriCikCwrXSCqzxUiQ06zK23K0UgjVubywl2VBgHx3um2_ilJl8/s1600/Antique+Chinese.jpg " border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5609084369080110194" /></a>Here is a carpet showing a mix of floral and geometric figures. The carpet is available to collectors from the <span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/index.cfm">Nazmiyal Collection</a></span></span> in New York.<br /><br />The picture at the top of this page is of a naturalistic carpet from around the northwestern town of Ningxia.<br /><br />That the carpets should become so classically Chinese is surprising because the steppe lands -- which are a rich wool producing region -- had a millennia-old tradition of felt carpet making with its own rich vocabulary of motifs. <br /><br />But it may be that by the 15th century, the people of northwest China already were heavily influenced by the overwhelming culture of China proper. <br /><br />It is likely, too, that in many of the main commercial centers for the rugs, such as Ningxia right beside the Great Wall, urban populations were already ethnically mixed. <br /><br />The rugs woven in northwest China had several markets. <br /><br />One market was the nomadic lands to the north, Mongolia and beyond, where the rugs were used to decorate yurts. <br /><br />A second market was Chinese Muslims who needed substitutes for prayer rugs, which were not woven in China. <br /><br />And the third and richest market – and the one which undoubtedly did the most to determine styles and designs -- was temples and noble homes.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUS3NC_edhH6xsk2VHfvk_A6ggifLQhrwnuAEpluSXqlQQZ5fZ08F6DM330tCkJXNTieU-p5o3oaAG_rBQXqYKPn3vIt7VOwZpZsopy7czEs5HSnoE2o_VQg4HEoE7BL46pWcK0M-Dl-8/s1600/V%2526A+Musuem_Pillar_Carpet_1885.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUS3NC_edhH6xsk2VHfvk_A6ggifLQhrwnuAEpluSXqlQQZ5fZ08F6DM330tCkJXNTieU-p5o3oaAG_rBQXqYKPn3vIt7VOwZpZsopy7czEs5HSnoE2o_VQg4HEoE7BL46pWcK0M-Dl-8/s320/V%2526A+Musuem_Pillar_Carpet_1885.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5549381434160208610" /></a>Ningxia rugs, for example, were used extensively in the monasteries of Tibet and northwest China. The temple carpets included Banner rugs, Hanging rugs, Curtain carpets and Pillar carpets. <br /><br />The Pillar carpets were sometimes made in two halves to fit around a column. Picture here is a column carpet from the 1880s in the Victoria and Albert Museum's collection.<br /><br />Interestingly, special colors were reserved for special audiences. Yellow was reserved for royal use, such the court and temples, while red was for gift carpets exchanged between aristocrats.<br /><br />But if these pile carpets are so distinctly Chinese in appearance, does it mean that the indigenous people of the northwest contributed no influence of their own?<br /><br />Hans Bidder, a German diplomat and carpet historian who lived many years in China before his death in 1963, believes the felt carpet culture of the steppe lands had a great effect on how the pile woven carpets were decorated. <br /><br />Bidder is particularly intrigued by the way the fields of Chinese carpets so often appear to be blank canvases upon which motifs – from animals to Taoist and Buddhist symbols – are placed in almost 'applique' fashion.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj38kGsxGu0rR5oXJwH98ZoqL5M-ukwYytAVD8F5AdwmTYT8FGqwOBTq91QrnaK_RVCVBbI9hqpUYoAT6TWWRDL_i5C_OyeBUT5Y4fjeUdDFl7kAftZYwTJFtMYtHLSLqtAkeo4SRJONpM/s1600/Paotou+rug+early+1900s.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 203px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj38kGsxGu0rR5oXJwH98ZoqL5M-ukwYytAVD8F5AdwmTYT8FGqwOBTq91QrnaK_RVCVBbI9hqpUYoAT6TWWRDL_i5C_OyeBUT5Y4fjeUdDFl7kAftZYwTJFtMYtHLSLqtAkeo4SRJONpM/s320/Paotou+rug+early+1900s.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5549381564817422690" /></a>Shown here is a carpet from the northwestern city of Baotou (or Paotou) showing objects in sharp contrast with their background.<br /><br />Often the motifs stand out so dramatically from the background that almost appear to have been inlaid into the field of the carpet the way motifs are rolled and pressed into the plain backgrounds of felt carpets. <br /><br />The appearance is sometimes heightened by cutting the pile to put the motifs in even higher relief – a practice that remains very common in Chinese carpets today. <br /><br />That preference for high relief makes a fascinating link not only to the art sensibilities of the nomadic felt makers but also to a period in China's own history when – due to the Mongol conquests of the 13th century – felt carpets briefly and unexpectedly rose to the level of a court art in Beijing.<br /><br />Bidder writes that "during the period of Mongol Chinese rule (1260 to 1341) the felt carpet developed into a very luxurious object."<br /><br />He continues, "in the year 1299 felt carpets with an area of 331 square meters were manufactured for the 'Palace of the Special Chambers' (imperial harem) … felts became so refined and improved in quality that the artistry of felt carpets finally equaled that of the best Oriental carpets and sometimes exceeded it." (Bidder, Carpets from Eastern Turkestan, published 1964.)<br /><br />It is interesting to speculate on how much this experience may have helped set the subsequent taste for bold, high-relief motifs on knotted rugs. But the impact of Mongol rule on Chinese rugs may have been still larger than that.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix3u8TK-9d0OanA-SYbKsuoc_8kYthAQpbby-3-5D4eiA_6deWKhB3lIfWNmRuF_FopWV6YeQxFZmLaZbO4F86QzV8MZ4yVpSdQc7v2SZJ4EpRu0tTsakiSsWMSZNrzIwCzga_srdgN2k/s1600/Ming+Dynasty+carpet.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix3u8TK-9d0OanA-SYbKsuoc_8kYthAQpbby-3-5D4eiA_6deWKhB3lIfWNmRuF_FopWV6YeQxFZmLaZbO4F86QzV8MZ4yVpSdQc7v2SZJ4EpRu0tTsakiSsWMSZNrzIwCzga_srdgN2k/s320/Ming+Dynasty+carpet.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551948230346399778" /></a>Bidder notes that ancient China – the Han peoples within the Great Wall – traditionally associated wool with the barbarian world. Their fabrics of choice were cotton and silk, instead. <br /><br />Here is a Ming Dynasty carpet that looks much like a silk robe in its pattern.<br /><br />It was only through centuries of contact with nomads on the northern border that Chinese slowly began to adopt the use of felt mats as utilitarian floor coverings or insulation padding on beds. The example of the Mongol court would have done much to convince Chinese to regard wool as an artistic medium, as well.<br /><br />Still, when weaving looms for carpets arrived in China, many people still regarded them as something alien. <br /><br />Bidder, a scholar of Chinese texts, cites the earliest known mention of the technology as noting the "weaving process has been taken over from the barbarians and is performed in their strange way." The book was written sometime in the Ming period of the 14th to 17th centuries.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEgm_X2X1ZSYgBBpmYfLvVTpkbTyHNUdbTwz3B6pexoqwDNWmK1TQHR7bYKeKGh3K3ToZhmMWKW1hNDfBCx6gH1jyLGP32yun09fVr0Uk0h1KK9XJqO4-dGfjUQK30pfNRPQT4unS-3ok/s1600/china+map.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 298px; height: 246px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEgm_X2X1ZSYgBBpmYfLvVTpkbTyHNUdbTwz3B6pexoqwDNWmK1TQHR7bYKeKGh3K3ToZhmMWKW1hNDfBCx6gH1jyLGP32yun09fVr0Uk0h1KK9XJqO4-dGfjUQK30pfNRPQT4unS-3ok/s320/china+map.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5549381991360904898" /></a>But if wool carpet weaving took hold relatively late in China, it rapidly developed into a major industry. <br /><br />The most active centers in the northwest – the ones most early carpets are named after – became the provinces of Kansu, Ningxia, and Suiyan (a now defunct province located in today's Inner Mongolia), as well as another part of Inner Mongolia near the city of Baotou (or Paotou)<br /><br />These centers thrived in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, setting the stage for the phenomenal growth of the Chinese export carpet industry when China opened to the world and major new weaving centers appeared in Peking and its nearby port Tiantsin.<br /><br />From historical records, it appears wool looms appeared in Beijing in the early 1860s. There carpet-maker developed new patterns based on Ningxia carpet designs but which progressively responded to Western market demands. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPDuA4ZW3yT31pE1kCv02HeO-1C0UqjzRtyAHUDBZdD0kwwRGK9RZSn_dNWBROZotg7m_h0VZKPKkYxWjZlx_noW24CNXlLX1E_GBcPDmlcq8rrPh_E_eUV3ajRbVNH6mEdhK00yYCLnQ/s1600/A+Peking+Rug.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 242px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPDuA4ZW3yT31pE1kCv02HeO-1C0UqjzRtyAHUDBZdD0kwwRGK9RZSn_dNWBROZotg7m_h0VZKPKkYxWjZlx_noW24CNXlLX1E_GBcPDmlcq8rrPh_E_eUV3ajRbVNH6mEdhK00yYCLnQ/s320/A+Peking+Rug.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5551902093066263250" /></a>Like the earlier Chinese carpets, the new Peking rugs depicted Chinese symbols and designs used for hundreds of years. <br /><br />But where the symbols tended to be profuse and cluttered together on domestic rugs, the new rugs spaced them out -- usually around a central medallion -- in harmonious designs more suited to western tastes.<br /><br />Blue Peking rugs made in Western room sizes gained huge popularity, particularly in America. They were followed by other rugs directly produced for the American market, often by companies owned by American expatriates in China. <br /><br />The most famous of these "American" exports were the Chinese Art Deco rugs of the 1920s and 1930s. But their success is another story (see: <span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://tea-and-carpets.blogspot.com/2008/05/jazz-age-gowns-tuxedos-and-chinese-art.html">The Jazz Age: Gowns, Tuxedos, And Chinese Art Deco Carpets</a></span>).<br /><br />#<br /><br /><a href="http://tea-and-carpets.blogspot.com/">RETURN TO HOME</a><br /><br />#Tea and Carpetshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06607321259227169325noreply@blogger.com40tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804437195679232310.post-56803102385573607672010-11-25T04:59:00.000-08:002011-05-21T01:48:44.712-07:00Khotan Carpets And The Lost Legacy Of The Silk Roads<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6JfOzZzkLEvwaRAC5x3DSAc4DdDntaJa-qryRtzWVdzpXtj2pgFnpBXuJUJRXORguxMKUUiGQyMPDExR94rrTtCo4ynkvG6wnxwmjxX6VjutVjygtVEWGBrYAyo4vI7IPrY8c1X9v3_0/s1600/Khotan+2.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 239px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6JfOzZzkLEvwaRAC5x3DSAc4DdDntaJa-qryRtzWVdzpXtj2pgFnpBXuJUJRXORguxMKUUiGQyMPDExR94rrTtCo4ynkvG6wnxwmjxX6VjutVjygtVEWGBrYAyo4vI7IPrY8c1X9v3_0/s320/Khotan+2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5543475540398933506" /></a>KHOTAN, East Turkestan; Dec. 4, 2010 -- In the center of the Asian continent is one of the world's most isolated places. <br /><br />It is a huge region – larger than Western Europe – and has a millennia-old carpet weaving tradition. Yet even today it is little known in the West because it is so remote.<br /><br />The place is known historically as East Turkestan and, today, comprises China's eastern-most province, Xinjiang.<br /><br />From any direction, East Turkestan is hard to reach. <br /><br />Its heartland, the Tarim Basin, is ringed on three sides -- north, west and south -- by mountain peaks up to 6,000 meters (20,000 feet) high, or about half again the height of Europe's Mont Blanc. That walls it off from Central Asia, Pakistan, and Tibet.<br /><br />On the fourth side, a vast desert cuts it off from China proper to the east.<br /><br />But over the millennia, this remote place attracted waves of settlers from all directions. And it was the pivot point of the Silk Roads, where the route from China branched south to India, north to Central Asia, and west to Persia, Anatolia, and Europe.<br /><br />The history of fused cultures can clearly be seen in East Turkestan's rugs and is what makes them both so fascinating and sui generis. <br /><br />One example is the rug from the town of Khotan shown at the top of this article. At first glance, it looks vaguely Islamic, vaguely Chinese, and vaguely Indian. In fact, it is all three. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKAcb6IWbP41_0lYI7PlQLCu_UBZnytdzzKyKWekhiZ8u1T7tHbzTBnuf0i1kN4-uCCcI4YK0CHozUNYOtE6I48nvkDHsP1lRC7u3pF6pxKRa-L494C3agBKbaIqT-jZOncDxSFzWD4lw/s1600/taklamakan.gif"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 183px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKAcb6IWbP41_0lYI7PlQLCu_UBZnytdzzKyKWekhiZ8u1T7tHbzTBnuf0i1kN4-uCCcI4YK0CHozUNYOtE6I48nvkDHsP1lRC7u3pF6pxKRa-L494C3agBKbaIqT-jZOncDxSFzWD4lw/s320/taklamakan.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5543475693776405554" /></a>Here is a map of the Tarim Basin, showing Khotan (here spelled Ho-t'ien) at the center of the Tarim Basin's southern edge. <br /><br />Khotan and all the other major towns of the region are oases fed by mountain rivers that disappear into the Taklamakan desert at the basin's center.<br /><br />Appreciating East Turkestan's carpets means peeling back layers of history, perhaps to about 1,500 to 1,000 BC. That is when historians believe the earliest agrarian settlers began penetrating into East Turkestan which, at the time, was dominated by Turkic nomads.<br /><br />The settlers were Indo-Europeans who were members of the same peoples of greater Persia whose wars with the Turkic nomads are chronicled in Persia's epic poem, the Shahnameh. They lived in the oasis towns and adopted Buddhism from India while the nomads roamed over the mountain slopes.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/antique-Khotan-rugs.html"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 253px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYmSCp0eRWByT0HRjsZH-lVVvQ8_Z_YaprRhOAjrXWz5NYIqI6LPKV36WI9enTNsRJMU5L6nVj1d5p3ku1JQs8yLC7nDyUxjiIIglD7kNTrFm4LqMG7ZueZJUxEgJSBL4suOoTpcNbx7M/s400/Khotan.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5609086669520905698" /></a>Here is a picture of another Khotan carpet. The carpet is available to collectors from the <span style="font-style:italic;"><span style="font-weight:bold;"><a href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/index.cfm">Nazmiyal Collection</a></span></span> in New York.<br /><br />The medallions are called Ay Gul, or "moon" motif, and are arranged in a pattern reminiscent of the three lotus seats on which Buddha flanked by two Bodhisattvas is represented in temple art. The border recalls nomadic felt carpet traditions.<br /><br />Just when weaving began in East Turkestan is unknown. But Western archaeologists have dated the earliest pile carpet fragments found in the Tarim Basin to about the third century AD. The fragments were found at Buddhist sites excavated by Sir Aurel Stein in Niya, an oasis east of Khotan, around 1900. <br /><br />During their history, the Buddhist oasis towns would be repeatedly overrun by powerful Turkic nomadic confederations, notably the Hsiung-nu (or Xiongnu) in the second century BC. But the nomads were content to levy tribute without changing the towns' culture or their role as middlemen for the Silk Roads.<br /><br />Similarly, China, which increasingly dominated the oasis states from the second to fourth centuries BC, had no interest at that time in colonizing or in spreading Chinese culture to them, unlike today.<br /><br />Instead, the Chinese were interested in maintaining garrisons to guard their Silk Road trade and assure their own imports of jade, which the mountain rivers bring down to the Tarim Basin. Whenever the rival Tibetan Empire displaced the Chinese, it too left the oasis states largely independent. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuoTvz7pkUApe3nvP_Mw9e0Q0KFCFdAudg1xc2-ftSBjEvEKQqmcPG0gHHJRCa_Xbh880YRcHju9f5uIv9w9YGlyIFOkGUjCCVTYeIgptzJEB9JydTxa37LzMAiZqik1U6Bke7p_U23dY/s1600/Khotan+mosque.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuoTvz7pkUApe3nvP_Mw9e0Q0KFCFdAudg1xc2-ftSBjEvEKQqmcPG0gHHJRCa_Xbh880YRcHju9f5uIv9w9YGlyIFOkGUjCCVTYeIgptzJEB9JydTxa37LzMAiZqik1U6Bke7p_U23dY/s320/Khotan+mosque.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5543475996127523730" /></a>The first real changes came about with the waves of Turkic conquests which began in the ninth century as huge new confederations of nomads mobilized for the westward migrations that would change the face of Eurasia. <br /><br />As the Turkic tribes adopted Islam, they also forced the conversion of the Buddhist oases, imposed their language, and created East Turkestan as we know it now.<br /><br />But if the conquests and later settling of the region by the Turks, and definitively by the Uigur Turks, brought new religious and cultural influences, it did not mean the end of the old artistic ones. <br /><br />Rug expert Hans Bidder writes in his landmark book Carpets from Eastern Turkestan (1964):<br /><br />"Iconoclastic Islam which spread into the oases from middle of the 10th century was indeed able to subdue the religious art of Buddhism, but the new faith proved incapable of gaining any hold upon individual arts and crafts which had their roots in the traditional customs and economic existence of the oases.<br /><br />"The old carpet weaving craft in Khotan, for example, whose precious fund of designs had been influenced by ten centuries of Indo-Grecian art, freely continued its own path of natural development."<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixlLJ29aGXtwIA99hBr9MMqHs2-rcJ9fpal2XwQAMDIatdQv0wQT_RcgV31-CiyLGjqsObGYSRJYZNvJ5P1_yCh4jXpqcoEfzRS20qUYmtcFai8MXNiP3lJJtkm3EyWCuIP-owErtHFT0/s1600/khotan.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 176px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixlLJ29aGXtwIA99hBr9MMqHs2-rcJ9fpal2XwQAMDIatdQv0wQT_RcgV31-CiyLGjqsObGYSRJYZNvJ5P1_yCh4jXpqcoEfzRS20qUYmtcFai8MXNiP3lJJtkm3EyWCuIP-owErtHFT0/s320/khotan.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5543936549123584178" /></a>Here is another Khotan carpet, this one in a "coffered gul" pattern. <br /><br />Bidder writes that "the coffered gul design, so characteristic of Khotan, dates back to either the Gandhara-Buddhism period, or to an even earlier epoch." (Gandhara, stretching from Kabul to Peshawar, reached its height under Buddhist kings from the 1st to 5th centuries AD.)<br /><br />He observes that the rosettes in the coffer boxes may be a floral "Khotan modification of a Turkoman Gul," while the border – with its curious multi-colored disintegrating design is Indian-influenced.<br /><br />Another major influence in the design of many East Turkestan rugs was undoubtedly the patterns on Chinese silks that passed up and down the trade routes.<br /><br />East Turkestan's carpet trade flourished through the middle ages and into the early modern era as the courts of Turkic rulers patronized the carpet workrooms of the oases. The carpets also found markets in India, Persia and Central Asia as part of the Silk Road trade and absorbed new influences from them in exchange.<br /><br />But when China occupied the whole of East Turkmenistan in the 1750s, things changed radically. The Chinese court had little interest in pile carpets beyond receiving them as diplomatic gifts and Chinese homes made no use of them at all.<br /><br />Worse, East Turkestan's incorporation into China cut its economic connections with the west. Commercial weavers who previously imported dyes from India were cut off both from their supplies and their best route for connecting to the fast growing rug market of 19th century Europe.<br /><br />Here is a photo of one of the most common East Turkestan patterns. It is a carpet woven in Yarkand with a pomegranate-vase design. This and other designs were also woven in the best known of the oasis towns, Kashgar.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-yYCw8iDkv9SwzNR4wRV6lgvzoY9UluTQpM55_q6So6Fn1tHLixwhRqID4SEX-RMVm3x44nj31yrf6dwgobt5sBN7kYLeF8QljGVQya508LLTRpSJNZo2idNilOaNgbxTTGPPQypqttA/s1600/Pomegranate.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 203px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-yYCw8iDkv9SwzNR4wRV6lgvzoY9UluTQpM55_q6So6Fn1tHLixwhRqID4SEX-RMVm3x44nj31yrf6dwgobt5sBN7kYLeF8QljGVQya508LLTRpSJNZo2idNilOaNgbxTTGPPQypqttA/s320/Pomegranate.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5543530644775535730" /></a>Those carpets from East Turkestan which did make their way west usually did so via the mountains into the Russian Empire and on to Central Asia's great carpet market in Samarkand. <br /><br />By the time they reached Europe, they were generically – along with other Central Asian rugs – termed "Samarkands" and their identity was lost.<br /><br />Similarly, if they went to Europe via oriental arts dealers in Beijing, they were called Kanju after one of the provinces they passed through on their way to the Chinese capital. That name, too, told nothing of their real origin.<br /><br />Today, after decades of an isolated and then re-opened communist China, the weaving industry of East Turkestan is so weak that it offers little for carpet enthusiasts. <br /><br />Commercial workshops are as likely to produce knock-offs of Persian carpets as copies of the region's own designs. If traditional carpets are woven for home use in any numbers, they are rarely seen or remarked upon by travelers. <br /><br />But the fact that weaving still exists at all in a place so long forgotten by the world's carpet markets is something of a miracle. <br /><br />Considering how many millennia and changes East Turkestan's weaving culture has already survived, it would be wrong to count it out now.<br /><br />#<br /><br /><a href="http://tea-and-carpets.blogspot.com/">RETURN TO HOME</a><br /><br />#<br /><br /><a href="http://www.absoluterugs.com/antique-rugs-menu/antique-oriental-area-rugs/antique-oriental-khotan-rugs.htm">Khotan Rugs: Samuel's Antique Rug Gallery</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.dorisleslieblau.com/antique-rugs-carpets-results.asp?CatName=&subCatName=Samarkand&rugRegion="><br />Khotan Rugs: Doris Leslie Blau's 'Samarkand' Gallery</a>Tea and Carpetshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06607321259227169325noreply@blogger.com30tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7804437195679232310.post-68037446618534895412010-11-11T07:14:00.000-08:002011-05-21T02:08:49.082-07:00Rags To Riches: The North American Art Of Hooked Rugs<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxvKeyQ7_5zeOdiCKoVNCYnExMFG6S7qLCjFmk-SlstlVn3pGaY0sscv3VoGsavEGczHM_CzmX5MPBM1QVCm7UAyGw8JdpGdijpR4Fy37CVv1ku82WUxEDrZrgXO3OIgHNbM8I_DKyZuQ/s1600/Hooked+Rug.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 250px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxvKeyQ7_5zeOdiCKoVNCYnExMFG6S7qLCjFmk-SlstlVn3pGaY0sscv3VoGsavEGczHM_CzmX5MPBM1QVCm7UAyGw8JdpGdijpR4Fy37CVv1ku82WUxEDrZrgXO3OIgHNbM8I_DKyZuQ/s320/Hooked+Rug.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5538932733480547394" /></a>BOSTON, November 20, 2010 -- It is always fascinating to see how rugs in so many parts of the world originated as practical necessities but evolved into items of art.<br /><br />One example is hooked rugs. <br /><br />They are a peculiarly North American creation that began as floor coverings and today are just as likely to be prized wall hangings. <br /><br />In the process, they have become one of the more enduring handcrafts in Canada and the United States and a medium for endless creativity.<br /><br />Just how wide ranging they can be is shown in the rug below by Massachusetts artist Margaret Arraj. <br /><br />It is in the style of a Khotan carpet from east Turkestan in the 1700s, inspired by the original in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAXXGSJGa6f4PmoEjeFsF7CF2JHUi1vjQYk_5e5xMaGjzyyiH4uGzYMBtdIt8I6ClJVPnX2lXlpEHcMAt-xwhjxqd48zfrcgC38K936xlov4iilTC1VRzuwfIVmk617SU-j2v6FvE7MkQ/s1600/Hooked+Khotan+Rug.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 178px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAXXGSJGa6f4PmoEjeFsF7CF2JHUi1vjQYk_5e5xMaGjzyyiH4uGzYMBtdIt8I6ClJVPnX2lXlpEHcMAt-xwhjxqd48zfrcgC38K936xlov4iilTC1VRzuwfIVmk617SU-j2v6FvE7MkQ/s320/Hooked+Khotan+Rug.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5538932887705779874" /></a>Arraj, whose rugs are for sale at her website <a href="http://www.millriverrugs.com/gallery.html">Mill River Rugs</a> is particularly interested in ethnic floral designs and old textiles. <br /><br />As she says, her designs “honor the artistic life and tradition of a variety of countries. In this way, they bring us closer to other cultures and times.”<br /><br />But most hooked rugs do not wander so far from home. <br /><br />Instead, they take their themes from North American folk culture as they depict flowers, wildlife, people, historical events, geometric patterns or simply express the imagination of the artist. <br /><br />And in that way, hooked rugs today remain surprisingly close to their origins in the in the 19th century.<br /><br />Just how hooked rugs evolved in the 1800s is a fascinating story.<br /><br />Author William Winthrop Kent writes that the earliest forebears of hooked rugs were the floor mats made in Yorkshire, England in the early days of the industrial revolution. <br /><br />At that time, workers in weaving mills were allowed to collect the excess pieces of yarn that were by-products of the work. The pieces, which were called “thrums” and usually some 9 inches (23 cm) long, were valuable to the workers because yarn in general was expensive and the products of the mills were affordable only to the middle and upper classes.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4B38A9C_OkUsMiukZytm4Kg5i6VgI3yC_kJsCMJAiol7kHHMDk7WVAHbFXyXEKWRnH4HlZesUwDV-wJnTM8xeDy1qKJQOKlkHhQNXlGRfRignFZe_v_DVL5qIo7pNvzl1PYurvGrVf0w/s1600/Weaving+Mill.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4B38A9C_OkUsMiukZytm4Kg5i6VgI3yC_kJsCMJAiol7kHHMDk7WVAHbFXyXEKWRnH4HlZesUwDV-wJnTM8xeDy1qKJQOKlkHhQNXlGRfRignFZe_v_DVL5qIo7pNvzl1PYurvGrVf0w/s320/Weaving+Mill.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5538938850478222498" /></a>The mill workers put the thrums to good use. <br /><br />They pulled the strips of yarn, one by one, through a grid backing to make carpets. The backing was linen or burlap or any other such heavy material and the tool for pulling the yarn through was a simple hook with a wooden handle.<br /><br />Later, this technique transferred to North America, specifically to New England and the Canadian Maritimes, and flourished. <br /><br />It became a favorite way for poorer households in these regions to produce colorful floor covering at a time when most 19th century homes had unsightly floors that were hastily cobbled together by the builders from softwood boards of random sizes.<br /><br />Because yarn was expensive, and always saved for knitting sweaters, poor families without access to thrums usually made their hooked rugs using scraps of ordinary cloth. <br /><br />But no matter what fabric was used, the hooked rugs were more attractive than the common alternative at the time: inexpensive mats woven from coconut fiber, straw, or corn husks.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/antique-Hooked-rugs.html"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 223px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzkq6512eL_46q5W44bxQ8EPLmj84ThE1Zyms0iF-WhaBe4oX8lVNX44RIfeJg_AbQaLzPRB9J8zXkiVcfWXuCMtvQFT354bajPNTw090kRMcbGyNuPA6lQpTGNqjSRsh5jYKFmaqWGa4/s400/Hooked+Rug.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5609092727509580098" /></a>Here is an antique hooked rug. It is available to collectors from the <span style="font-style:italic;"><span style="font-weight:bold;"><a href="http://nazmiyalantiquerugs.com/index.cfm">Nazmiyal Collection</a></span></span> in New York.<br /><br />One might expect hooked rugs to have died out once machine-powered carpet weaving, invented in the 1830s, developed sufficiently to produce cheap carpeting in massive volumes. And by the 1870s, machine weaving was doing just that to solve people’s flooring problems.<br /><br />But instead of disappearing, the pastime of “hooking rugs” passed from being a household chore into a hobby. <br /><br />Over time, as standards of living improved with the industrial revolution, the materials used in the rugs also upgraded.<br /><br />By the 1930s, when artists and author Pearl McGown widely popularized the art by publishing formal guidelines for it, the “pile” material had become wool strips and the rugs – as they are still called – had become wall hangings.<br /><br />In their heyday as a floor covering, hooked rugs were often produced by poorer families and even businesses for sale commercially. <br /><br />The most ambitious products were hooked carpets of living-room size.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSB0KFtxIcqL505_iw8tKVbUG3Bh0PRsm9zVlVLuMhKdmQs3vrBeTlwopFUmC3c_zQ_ervghyphenhyphenaJouZGQ99RCiXxek4DUeZRa4AFoOryfoCi3MKxwNbdAjxZWMTfsZ-BVY5HY-ikCz_kok/s1600/Hooked+Baroque+Rug.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 238px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSB0KFtxIcqL505_iw8tKVbUG3Bh0PRsm9zVlVLuMhKdmQs3vrBeTlwopFUmC3c_zQ_ervghyphenhyphenaJouZGQ99RCiXxek4DUeZRa4AFoOryfoCi3MKxwNbdAjxZWMTfsZ-BVY5HY-ikCz_kok/s320/Hooked+Baroque+Rug.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5538939188575019602" /></a>Here is an antique hooked rug – 12.5 feet by 16 feet (3.8 x 4.8 meters) – designed in the style of a baroque European carpet. <br /><br />Such old pieces today are highly prized and are sold by some dealers in North America as “American Hooked” rugs right alongside antique oriental ones.<br /><br />And, because there is not enough supply of the large antique hooked rugs to meet demand, there is also a market for reproductions. That's as some American decorators try to recapture the look of New England homes of days gone by, particularly for vacation cottages. <br /><br />The commercial reproductions, made outside of North America, exist side-by-side with the very active output of rug hooking hobbyists and artists across Canada and the United States. <br /><br />As always, the hobbyists continue to hook rugs for their friends and family but, unfortunately, only rarely for sale.<br /><br />For a video demonstration of how hooked rugs are made, and examples of folk art motifs, click on this YouTube link: <br /><br /><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/JCVaRxyQ-jo?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/JCVaRxyQ-jo?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br /><br />#<br /><br /><a href="http://tea-and-carpets.blogspot.com/">RETURN TO HOME PAGE</a><br /><br />#<br /><br />Related Links:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.millriverrugs.com/gallery.html">Mill River Rugs: Gallery of New Hooked Rugs</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.absoluterugs.com/antique-rugs-menu/american-hooked-rugs/hooked-rugs-menu.html">Absolute Rugs: Gallery of Antique Hooked Rugs</a> <br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCVaRxyQ-jo">Gene Shepherd Rug Hooking Video</a>Tea and Carpetshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06607321259227169325noreply@blogger.com30