18th century, 74 x 147 cm, Central Asia, West Turkestan

This large Salor three-gul chuval features star devices as secondary designs and a kochanak border. The narrow elem contains 15 small trees. The light red gul centres are woven in wool in this early example. Silk is not encountered in the pile material. Rich luminous colours, with clearly differentiated shades of blue and green.

Salor chuvals woven in this design served as models for Tekke chuvals of almost identical design, although the latter are always distinctly smaller in format. Singular in style, the trees seen in the Salor elem were not adopted into the Tekke design repertoire.

Signs of age and wear, five minor missing areas have been backed with felt. Both sides somewhat reduced. No kilim back. Provenance: Peter Hoffmeister Collection, Dorfles-Esbach

MACKIE, LOUISE & THOMPSON, JON, Turkmen. Tribal Carpets and Traditions. Washington 1980, no. 8 *** DODDS, DENNIS & EILAND, MURRAY L., Jr. (eds.), Oriental Rugs from Atlantic Collections. Philadelphia 1996, no. 149 *** RIPPON BOSWELL, Sammlung Dominguez, A 35, 28 March 1992, lot 65

TSAREVA, ELENA, Turkmen Carpets. The Hoffmeister Collection. Stuttgart 2011, no. 8