47

Ersari, Turkmenistan
Face of a Shallow Storage Bag (torba)
or Bridal Trapping, 19th century

Because many Ersari in the Oxus (Amu Darya) River valley had given up a fully nomadic way of life well before the 19th century, their rugs often abandoned the usual Turkmen tribal repertoire of gul motifs. An Ersari weaver might substitute ikat patterns she saw on silks from the city of Bukhara, or she might adopt Persian floral designs, as in this example. The motifs on this panel probably are stylized, long-stemmed palmettes excerpted from the Ersari version of the "Herati" pattern, a common Persian repeat design. Rugs and small pieces with such "untribal" designs are often known in the trade as "Beshir." They are in many instances coarser and more inventively colored than the woven products of other Turkmen tribes. Here, for instance, the repeated palmettes, outlined in yellow or white, grow from a ground enlivened by random "patches" of dark blue, lighter blue, and green. The function of this panel is difficult to determine; it might have been made to decorate a bride's camel (as were cat. nos. 41, 44, and 45),or, if once attached to a back panel, it could have been used as a shallow sack for storing household items.

J.B..