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There are a number of
gabbeh coarse sleeping rugs woven by several nomadic groups in
southwest Iran with designs made up of blocks of color within a
grid, similar to those in this bagface.1 But the appearance of that
motif in khorjin is very uncommon. The grid of seemingly randomly
distributed colored squares is made more emphatic by the comparative
lack of borders.
Where would such a design have originated? John Wertime leads one to
believe that the concept may have had as an antecedent animal pelt
rugs made up of predyed squares of sheep or goat skin, with hair or
wool intact, which were then sewn together to form a rug.2 The
follow on is that later pile-woven rugs may have mimicked these pelt
rugs.
Although a number of specialists have seen this bagface, none seems
ready to give a definitive opinion as to tribal origin.
RET
1) See, for example, Eiland, M., (ed.), A
World Of Oriental Carpets & Textiles, Washington, D.C., 2003,
figure 39
2) Wertime, J., Back To Basics: Primitive pile Rugs Of West &
Central Asia, Hali 100, pp 86-97 |
