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It is not totally out of the ordinary to find
a Bakhtiari double bag like this one, which has had its closure
panels removed and been joined, with the loss of one guard, to make
a small rug. In its original state, the striped plainweave panels
would have faced a donkey’s back, the pile strips would have been
the point where the bag was folded across the warp to make two
pouches, and the sumakh faces would have been fully visible, facing
outward. These bags were used primarily to transport and store
bedding by nomads who migrated across the Zagros Mountains in southwestern Iran. Some
Zagros nomads, variously called Lurs or Bakhtiars, used mafrash-style
bedding bags, as opposed to the more usual khorjin-style bag seen
here. The only extensive publication of these bedding bags was in a
seminal exhibition catalogue by John Wertime and Amadeo DeFranchis1.
The small chanteh, with its typically low knot-count,
wool and cotton pile face, may have had a shoulder strap, but there
is no evidence of it now. The pile runs around the bottom of the
bag, where it is folded to form a pouch, as with the larger khorjin,
above.
Most intriguing and charming are: 1) the closure panels at the top
of the bag, which are decorated with randomly colored wool
weft-wrapping that the colored ground wefts peek through and give a
striped effect, and 2) the free form weft-wrapping and brocaded
panel on the back of the chanteh.
This chanteh is so well preserved that even the two tassels at the
top of the bag, one with a blue-glazed “worry” bead, are intact.
The size difference
between these two bags is
readily apparent when
viewing them in a side-by-side comparison.
RET
1) Wertime, J. & and DeFranchis, A.,
Luri and Bakhtiyari Flatweaves, Tehran, 1978. |
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Structural Data (32a): |
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Size:
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7’ 6” x 3’ (229 x 91 cm.)
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Flatweave with sumakh
panels; center is knotted; main is sumakh. It has been cut and
joined with dark brown machine spun Z2S cotton. |
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Warp:
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lIvory wool and dark brown hair, Z2S
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Flatweave Section |
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Weft-faced plain weave, Z2S wool; 28 per vertical inch
‘WHITE FLAGS’ are integrated into flat-weave section with slit
tapestry technique diamonds. The ground is white cotton, Z3S and the
patterning is sumakh, 2:1 ratio and weft wrapping, wool, Z2S
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Knotted Section |
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Weft:
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Red wool and dark blue wool and light red wool, Z2S; 2 per row
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Pile: |
Symmetrical, wool, Z2S, 6hx11v=66kpsi |
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Sumakh Section |
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Balanced and countered sumakh, 2:1 ratio,
wool, Z2S and cotton, Z3S |
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weft: |
Red wool, Z2S, 2 per row, 10 per vertical
inch |
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Structural Data (32b): |
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Size:
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13” x 11” (33 x
28 cm.)
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Front |
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Warp:
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Light brown wool, Z2S
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Weft:
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Dark brown hair, Z2S; 2-4 per row
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Pile:
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Symmetrical, wool, Z2S (occasionally (2) Z2S);
Some white cotton, Z3S; 5h x 9v = 45kpsi
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Top
Front |
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Closure
Panel: |
Countered sumakh, ground wefts seen between,
bordered by remnants of countered twining and two span twining as
noted above, followed by weft-faced plain weave with dark brown
hair, turned under and sewn overcast with blue wool, Z2S. |
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Selvage: |
Plain selvage, dark brown hair, Z2S; two
sets of paired warps. |
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Join |
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Remnants of overcast with blue wool, Z2S |
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Back |
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Knotting continues 1 1/2” onto back,
followed by 1 1/4” weft substitution weave, 1:1 ratio, wool (blue &
red), Z2S. |
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Center: |
Weft-faced plain weave, dark brown hair,
Z2S, 28 per vertical inch; with brocade, bordered at top and bottom
with varying span, two color (blue & red) countered twining, wool,
Z2S. The side borders of the center plain weave section are made of
weft wrapping with alternating colors (blue & red) ,wool, Z2S, on
two sets of paired warps.
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Top: |
2,1/2” weft-faced plain weave, with two rows
of 6:2 twining, dark brown hair, Z2S; followed by varying span, two
color (blue & red) weft substitution weave, Z2S, wool. The top is
folded under and overcast sewn with dark brown hair, Z2S; and red
wool, Z2S. |
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Loops: |
Braided, Z2S, dark brown hair |
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Copyright
©
2004,
New England Rug Society,
All Rights Reserved |
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