41

Chodor, Turkmenistan
Bridal Camel Trapping, early 19th century

This splendid trapping, with its deep purple-brown field color and clothlike handle, is one of the oldest surviving rugs of the Chodor Turkmen. It was probably made to decorate a flank of the camel ridden by a bride on her wedding day. Portions of its bottom tassels and the flat braids used to secure it still remain. Unlike many storage bags it never had a back. Two of the primary guls of this trapping are an unusually deep blue. These alternate with guls that are green on the back of the trapping; time and exposure to light have caused the yellow dye applied over indigo to fade, leaving behind the beautiful pale greenish-blue of the pile surface. An age-old motif of two birds facing a central tree appears on the halved secondary medallions (known as ertman guls). The precisely drawn inner border of hooked cartouches and interlocking x-forms is found not only on rugs from other Turkmen tribes, but also in virtually identical form on 15th- and 16th-century Turkish carpets ("small-pattern Holbeins," for instance). This suggests a long-standing Turkmen influence on the rugs of Anatolia, and it is certainly evidence of the migration and durability of rug designs. A freer and folksier rendering of the same border is sometimes evident on 19th-century Caucasian carpets, including a prayer rug in this exhibition (cat. no. 14).

J.B.

Published: Louise W. Mackie and Jon Thompson, eds., p. 121, pl. 49.