Author Archives: Kevin

About Kevin

Kevin Sudeith is an artist and the creator and curator of the war rug collection seen on warrug.com. Beginning as (and remaining) a collector, he began selling war rugs to learn as much as possible about the rugs. Later he sold what he calls "regular rugs" to better study rugs and their historical origins. Sudeith learned how war rugs related to traditional Afghan tribal and workshop rugs as well as the broader Turkmen and Persian rug traditions.

The Camel’s Back

Two by Two

Here are four rugs woven by two weavers of one pattern. The two pairs have distinctly different structures and materials, but each pair’s material, color, drawing, border, handle, knotting, and selvedge is consistent. Note inverted red helicopter in Camel 1.

Interestingly, in Murray Eiland’s Oriental Rugs, 1976 edition, on page 83 is a rug of this design attributed Shindand, mid twentieth century.

Camel 1

Camel 2

Camel 3

Camel 4

More Mihrabs

Rugs 2030, 2031, and 2032 are new, and they were purchased together. The material, structure and colors in all three are the same.

Rug 2030

Rug 2031

Rug 2032

Mihrabs and Direction
Which way is up? The weaver’s top is “up” in each picture. The mihrab in this style or pattern is the squiggily line on top of the gun barrels, as in rugs #900 and #2025, so not the obvious point on the other end. The squiggily lines in 900 and 2025 are at the weaver’s top and the images are orientated that side up, including border tanks in 2025. Rugs 2031 and 2032’s mihrabs are consistent with gun barrel top, but 2030’s two column orange and yellow checkered towers are like Seh Mihrabi prayer niches, whereas 2031’s mihrab is like the mosque minarets we often see indicating up. Furthermore, the tank orientation jibes with gun barrel mihrab in 900, 2025, the three rugs in Nigel Lendon’s the now outdated and under-maintained blog, but not in 2030, 2031, 2032 and the bottom rug here in Nigel’s now lost post. https://warrug.com/Info/category/baluchi-patterns/

The bottom line, the gun is generally the top, but not absolutely, and the black shape makes the rug sort of reversable. More important is the design’s plasticity and our witnessing it change from one state to another.

Motifs
More mysteries indeed. We clearly have an anti aircraft gun, a tank, as well as two kinds of grenades, small arms, various helicopters, mostly in the older examples.

But, what is the primary black shape with four round corners and pointy end opposite : goat’s head? map? falling bomb? I propose the black four corner form with a pointy end and a gun on the other, form represents the chassis and wheels of the gun. The four corners are the wheels, the minarets are the shock absorbers and the pointy end is the tow package.
Hi-res image of zpu-4
More helpful images
One more good example

The Tank
2030 clearly shows a tank in its “top” half. But 2031 and 2032 show a cute stylization of the tank into a duck-like form, and you’ve got to love the three flowers.

The three new rugs, 2030, 2031, and 2032 (as well as the lower rug in “>Ragged Mihrabs (on Nigel Lendon’s blog), all have the jagged rectangle in the body of the gun. Any ideas? 2025 and 900 have ‘bent Ys’ in the same places. While this ‘bent Y’ motif is a common field filler, or tertiary motif, the three ends of the Y approximate the three jagged points of the rectangle. In 2031 and 2032 below the jagged rectangle is a snake the previous owner and I agreed.

Rug #2025

Rug #900

(note seat shape in 2030, (dead link)here and( dead link) here and:
(dead image link)

(shout out to Ron) Whereas the similar motif in certain Red Soviet Hand Rugs (like Rug #262, Rug 321, respectively below.)shows

The point is, 2031 and 2032 are very difficult to identify as war rugs.

The

“If it’s all night, it’s alright!” – James Brown and Bob Marley

Old and New: “The name of the place….Augustus, JA”

I’ve always suspected James Brown influenced Bob Marley, and a friend recently played me the proof. On The Complete Wailers 1967-1972, Part 1, Disc 2 is Feel Allright (Original), a beautiful cover of James Brown’s *GREAT*, There Was a Time a.k.a. ‘Groove Maker’.

The Wailers cover There Was a Time from Side 2 of James Brown and the Famous Flames Live at the Apollo Volume 2. James Brown does a call and response replicated by the Wailers in the studio.

The Wailers :”Heh! Heh! :
Bob Marley: “Feel alright – one time”
“HUH!!”
“Yes!”
“Oh! Oh!”
“Feel pretty good a-myself, yo – two”
“HUH!! HUH!!”
“Yeah!”
“Eh! Eh!”
“Feel alright! – Three”
“HUH!! HUH!! HUH!!”

Small Mount Fuji Rug


This Mount Fuji rug is new and roughly 1M^2.$150. It shows a simplification and abstraction from a rug like:

Super fine, roughly 5×7, $1400
The new Mount Fuji rug also links to a more abstract group of small Baluchi rugs. Similar too below, but with red and blue minarets in foreground.

Previous Mount Fuji war rug post
Another previous Mount Fuji rug post
UPDATE:

Rug 465
Here is an example of the more abstract group referred to above which were more common 6 to 7 years ago. The new rug provides a link to understanding the imagery in the rugs like 465. The Mushwani type two minaret mosque borders are noteworthy in the large fine Mount Fuji rug as well as rug #465.

Red Rug Sub-Groups

Warrug.com’s selection of small red rugs illustrates sub groups of red rugs well.

‘Classic Red Rug
‘



“[not] Vegetable Dye”



Modern [true] Vegetable Dye

‘Five Genades’ (random name but most popular style)



‘Squashed Helicopter’ Style’




‘Camoflage Helicopter’ named for harlequin-esque rendering on helicopters. These were readil available in 1999 and 2000. They are like “Classic” red rugs, but not quite as finely knotted.




“Fat RPG’s” (for lack of a better name)