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The weaver of this piece was clearly an
accomplished artist, skilled at keeping a repeat design from being
boring by varying color combinations within the diamond grid while
at the same time maintaining the grid a bit off center. The border
appears to be another version of a simplified “Kufic” border, with
the brackets one normally expects around each rosette represented by
colored dots.
The weaving technique used for this bagface, one of a pair that was
originally “married” to a younger striped flatwoven back, is called
in weaving shorthand, “reverse sumakh”, or
perhaps more properly, “2/4 extra weft reverse wrapping”. Although
the technique was sometimes used for mafrash, it is more common in
smaller bags, animal trappings and short bands. Reverse sumakh
can produce a stiff needlepoint-like texture and is especially
effective when used with clear saturated colors.
Reverse sumakh is uncommon, and was apparently used by nomads but
not villagers in Azarbayjan. The diamond grid design in this piece
is often seen copied in pile-woven bags that are likely in some
cases to have been woven by settled peoples.
RET
Note: For more
information on “reverse sumakh”, as well as “sumakh” bags in
general, see Wertime, J., Sumak Bags of Northwest Persia and
Transcaucasia, London, 1998.
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