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Kurt Munkacsi has published the most
extensive writing focused explicitly on Chodor chuvals.1
He recaps the Chodors' history, and
uses the locations of the Chodor at various periods in history to
hypothesize certain other things, such as contact with Yomud tribes
and likely adoption of some of their design vocabulary, or access to
and inclusion of certain materials, such as cotton. His article
concentrates on pieces woven with the so-called Ertmen gul, which
the Chodor used more often than the chuval/torba gul used in this
fragment. Nevertheless, it’s interesting to apply some of his lines
of thinking to this piece.
Most Chodor chuvals with a chuval gul have a 3x3 main gul layout (as
this piece presumably did when complete), but, as opposed to the
drawing in this fragment, the main gul is clearly quartered right to
its center, and a smaller version of the chuval gul serves as the
minor gul. This chuval’s major and minor gul bear greatest
resemblance to Tekke designs – compare with piece 38 in this
exhibition, for example. This piece is atypical among Chodor chuvals
in its use of the chemche gul as a minor gul, although there is a
published example of a torba attributed to the Chodor with chuval/torba
major gul and chemche minor gul.2
Munkacsi points, in Hali 77, to a
small group of Chodor driven by Nadir Shah from Khorezm to Charjui,
where they might have had exposure to nearby Tekke groups and their
designs. Alternately, it has been indicated a group of Tekke went to
Khorezm in the first half of the 19th century, so that might have
provided Chodor weavers with exposure to Tekke designs.3
Also, there are examples of Yomud
weaving with similar major and minor guls; Chodor contact with Yomud
tribes would have provided another possible design source for this
piece’s weaver.
While the major and minor gul seem far removed from the Chodor
mainstream, other design elements in this piece follow Chodor design
traditions more closely. The plant form used in the major border
design shows up in other Chodor weavings.4
The rounded S form in the minor border is found in many
Chodor weavings, and Munkacsi links it to the oldest group of Chodor
weavings – second half of the 18th century. The top minor border
system of this piece is very unusual, using the sarkhalka design
above the major border and the rounded S form below the major border
at the top of the piece. The large number of so-called closure
markers found in this piece can be found in other Chodor chuvals,
such as #17 in the Hali 77 article, with a similar candy-cane
stripe. The large number of markers and the striping are not typical
for older Yomud pieces that also use these closure markers. And the
elem design – very spaciously and beautifully handled in this piece
-- is commonly used by Chodor weavers (and by Arabatchi weavers as
well); see chuvals #7, #8, #10, and #18 in the Hali 77 article.
This fragment was acquired by its owner in Bokhara in 1994.
JA
1) Munkacsi, K., “Dividing The Chodor”,
Hali 77, pp 96-107
2) Elmby, H., Antique Turkmenske
Taepper III, Copenhagen, 1996, plate 30
3) O'Bannon, G., et al, Vanishing Jewels,
Rochester (NY) 1990
4) One example is chuval #7 in Munkacsi,
Hali 77, cited above, while the other is plate 11, Cassin, J.
and Hoffmeister, P. Tent Band, Tent Bag, Esbach (Germany)
1988
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