Ca. 1800 or earlier, 56 x 95 cm, Central Asia, West Turkestan

This unusual bag face showing every sign of great age cannot be assigned to any of the tribal groups defined to date. It is finely and regularly woven in the asymmetrical knot open to the right, and the foundation is not depressed. The handle is flexible, the pile as soft as velvet, and the ground colour a reddish-brown hue. The rare format – smaller than a chuval and higher than a torba – does not match any of the common classifications of size. This bag face can probably be attributed to the large Yomut family whose sub-groups have by no means been exhaustively studied. – Four horizontal rows of six Memling güls, each with a central star, constitute the primary design of the field. They are superimposed on a second design layer of diamonds with double hooks attached to their points; drawn in restrained colours and with a sparse interior design, they seem almost insubstantial. – Memling güls are used as the primary design in many bags woven by various Turkmen tribes, for example in Salor and Saryk weavings. However, an item immediately comparable to our bag has not been published anywhere. The torba from the Hecksher Collection illustrated in the "Atlantic Collections" catalogue is similar in field design, but unmistakably a Saryk weaving. Torba no. 8 in Rageth is a Salor weaving. The example published as no. 61 in Mackie/Thompson and described as a "Bridal camel trapping, Yomud" has a very different field design, but the same height as our bag face and a similar palette. These two enigmatic pieces may have been woven by the same tribe. – The pile has survived at its full height, but the many repiled areas distributed across the entire surface indicate that the bag face was once badly damaged by moths.

DODDS, DENNIS & EILAND, MURRAY L.,JR. (eds.), Oriental Rugs From Atlantic Collections. Philadelphia 1996, no. 215 *** RAGETH, JÜRG, Turkmenische Teppiche. Ein neuer Ansatz. Basel 2016, no. 8 *** MACKIE, LOUISE & THOMPSON, JON, Turkmen. Tribal Carpets and