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Fars province in Iran was the home of an
astonishing variety of flatweave techniques, not the least of which
were several that are warp-predominant. This bag, woven in a warp
patterning weave, has warp floats forming a repeat pattern of “X”
forms within diamonds on the front, and a different diamond pattern
on the reverse side.
The combination of reciprocal borders and diagonal stripes
surrounding the field is fairly common in bags of this type. But the
use of so many secondary colors - in this case, red, green,
aubergine, yellow and light blue - is unusual. Material of this type
was sometimes woven with wool only, or in some very finely woven
pieces, with dyed wool and undyed white cotton. Secondary colors are
most often only red and green. The consensus is that this type of
weaving is probably attributable to the Darrehshuri taifeh (tribe)
of the Qashqa'i Confederation.
Although their techniques are quite different, it is hard to avoid
seeing the visual relationship between bags of this type and
Qashqa’i packbands. Both are warp-faced, narrow, and normally
patterned in blue and ivory, often with red and green borders. It
seems likely that both types of weaving have been used for
millennia.
Marla Mallett informs that this type of warp-patterned weaving,
which is difficult and time-consuming to produce, was probably woven
with four harness looms. It is worth noting that other complex
warp-dominant textiles called twill weave jajims were also woven by
the Darrehshuri, and that Marla thinks those textiles were almost
certainly woven on four harness looms.
These twill weave jajims are well illustrated in Caucasus Persia
by Hamid Sadighi.1
Complex four harness looms would
likely not have been used by nomads that broke camp regularly while
following their grazing sheep.
With this warp-patterned “yardage”, a weaver could use long strips
of material as modules to build any cover or container that she
wanted. The material was used for many types of bags, horse covers,
and spectacular large ground covers and curtains, up to two by three
meters in size.
RET
1) For more information
on twill weave jajims, see Sadighi, H., Vok Collection, Caucasus
Persia, Munich, 1996, plates 75 and 76, plus accompanying text.
Thanks to both Marla Mallett and John Wertime for helping me
negotiate the thicket that is called “warp float patterning” or
“warp-faced alternating float weave”. |
