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Country of Origin: Turkmenistan
Date of Origin mid-19th century
Use: Arsary Torba.
JBOC Comments: This is a
wonderful piece of just how attractive an Arsary
Ensi can be. I suspect that this may be a Saltuq
(Seljuk) Ensi. The Saltuq were the elite clan of
the Arsary.
Description:
Mid 19th Century Ersari Salor
Turkoman Ensi @ a-bey
Rare design, good cond., Great color, open left
GREAT! Item number: 3706328193
Winning bid: US $1,900.00 (Reserve met)
Winning bidder: jrpell( 96)
Description
Here is a complete Ersari ensi from the middle of
the 19th century measuring 5 feet 3 inches X 6
feet 8 inches. The colors are all vegetable dyes
and the colors include a deep maroon red field,
iridescent sky blue, green, yellow, apricot,
white, and brown.
In the upper and the lower panels three columns
stand upright and terminate in kochanks. The four
quadrants are filled with a single complex repeat
of interlocked rams horns and the last repeat of
each column terminates in kochanks exactly like
the three central columns. A minor but important
detail is that each central column floats
completely free of any other motif. It is rare to
see a Turkoman weaver place a red directly next
to a blue. The reason may be as simple as the
fact the line quality and thus the weaving
quality is negatively impacted by any
inconsistence in their relationship. It is much
easier to make a good straight line when you have
a dark outlining color like black or dark brown
separating the blue from the red. The white outer
border comes all the way down to the elem framing
the entire composition most effectively. The elem
of this ensi like others of its type is small.
This one is very small but also very interesting.
It is a simple row of pentagonal shapes
representing yurts. The nicest parts of this old
ensi are the major border designs and the
elaborate trumpeting elephant or so called curled
leaf border system which frames the inner panels.
This motif is elaborated with a simple red cross
in the white areas representing the elephants
head. The main border is archaic and very seldom
seen.
It seems to represent two people sitting back to
back on one axis and two people head to head in
the opposite direction. These designs are seen in
the negative spaces of each repeating design
device or iconogram. The iridescent blue is just
splendid to behold. It shines out from the rest
of the rug like a sapphire catching the suns rays
at just the right angle. The center design
between the upper and lower halves of the ensi is
rather small, well drawn, and completely typical.
As I have already alluded this ensi is extremely
well woven, rather dense and heavy as the wool is
very high quality.
The rug has good pile but the center is somewhat
low as this was the area walked upon. As many of
you know one of my main specialty areas is the
Turkoman ensi. I collected and sold some of the
best examples in America including the Ersari
Ensi now at the DeYoung Museum as one of the main
displays from the George Heckshure collection,
this piece was prominently published in Hali in
the article they did on him.
The Ersari in the first half of the 19th century
were composed of remnants from several tribes
including a prominent portion of Salor. The Salor
adopted the ersari style of weaving though they
continued to weave with their knots open to the
left. Sharp collectors like
Kurt Munkacsi realized this long ago and
already have built up significant collections of
salor weavings done in ersari styles. These
styles were not imposed but resulted from the
effects of commerce. For instance the Mina Khani
was very popular and the Persian design was
translated by these tribal people into an ever so
pleasing arrangement.
The Turkoman design of early examples still
clearly shows Turkoman motifs everywhere you look
like the chemche form or the Turkoman star and
many other easily recognizable motifs.
Seen on www.eBay.com
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