A 'KARADASHLI' MAIN CARPET, YOMUT CONFEDERATION, WEST TURKESTAN

Rippon Boswell, Wiesbaden, 31 May 2014, lot 179.

A rare ‘Karadashli’ main carpet with secondary guls with tauk nuska type animals.

The attribution of certain weavings to the Yazir-Karadashli tribe was first proposed by Siawosch Azadi in Wie Blumen in die Wüste: Die Kultur der turkmenischen Nomadenstämme Zentralasien, Hamburg 1993. An important Turkman tribe in the medieval period, believed later subsumed into the Yomut confederation in the 17^th century, their works are primarily identified through their use of the flattened hexagonal gul seen in this carpet, although this gul does appear in weavings attributed to others, see for example Pinner, R., and Eiland, Jr., M.L., Between the Black Desert and the Red, Turkmen Carpets from the Wiedersperg Collection, San Francisco 1999, pl. 25, a Tekke Torba with this gul; it is also seen in some Eagle-Gul Group bags. For examples of related Eagle-Gul group bags, please see Rautenstengel, A. and V, & Azadi, S., Studien zur Teppich-Kultur der Turkmen, Hilden 1990, ills. 22, 26 and 29; Herrmann, E., Asiatische Teppich- und Textilkunst Band 2, Munich 1990, no. 60.  Other characteristics include the use of the symmetric knot, colour and age.

This carpet displays just eleven rows of three primary guls in a spacious composition and with rich luminous colours including a clear red and rich aubergine. However, what makes it probably unique is the use of this particular secondary gul in a main carpet; a small hexagonal motif enclosing a star and issuing four elaborate hooked arms to form a cross, small animals with clearly drawn horns and tails which curl over their backs are disposed between each arm of each cross, in some cases all facing in the same direction, others confronting, and others addorsed. They are consistently coloured however, with those on the diagonal from top right to lower left in red, and the opposite in white. They add a very special playful charm and liveliness to the carpet. The lowest row of primary guls are divided by dotted lines, these then are exchanged for red. Other unusual features of the carpet include the experimental approach to the inner and outer guard stripes, which use seven different patterns, and to the main border; the bottom border is decorated with ‘boat’ palmettes, whilst the sides and ends include rosettes, stepped diamonds and ashik motifs, perhaps indicating several hands worked on the weaving of this unique artefact.