Also for sale is this beautifully woven drone rug from 2015, Warrug has seen many variations of this style over the years.
It’s dynamic pattern and color schemes add complexity to this rug while maintaining a balance. Red white and blue coloration, coupled with the red, white, and blue border ads complexity to this rug.
It is Size 36 x 24 inches (92 X61 cm) using hand spun wool.
The other Terkmen and Uzbek War Rug With Light Fields is also made of the highest quality material and spired by other UXO, a.k.a. Unexploded Ordnance, rugs like the Weapon Inventory rug which is made from undyed wool and is visually appealing.
Here is a side by side.
This is not the focus of Warrug.com, but twenty years ago we picked up this rug, and now it is time to downsize.
The details are in the link: Rug #2122, Antique Daghestan Prayer Rug. The price is $3,500, so contact us if you are interested in purchase, and we will send a PayPal invoice.
The design of this rug is not typical of the type, and the pattern conveys a special sensibility. The figure, represented by the pattern inside the mihrab, is the same as the world, represented by the same lattice pattern outside the mihrab. The part that is different is where the prayers go up from the figure, and the lattice breaks down to series of small dreamy motifs.
Afghan tribal rugs use two techniques to create “halftones”. The techniques are “checkered” knots and “marling”. Marled and checked colors function particularly well in landscape backgrounds.
CHECKERED COLORS
When individual knots alternate between colors (both vertically and horizontally) the result is a checkered color, like these examples:
^ Rug #1065 ^
MARLED COLORS
Marled is two colors spun into one thread then woven into a carpet. It is more irregular and “blurry” than checkered colors.
(verso) ^ Rug #779 ^
^ Rug #1484 ^
Warrug.com gets a lot of traffic, but what was the most viewed file in September 2018? A blog post from 2006 about regular rugs we were selling at the flea market entitled contained one photo that has achieved an obscure internet fame. The Mashad rug we were selling looked just like the rug which The Dude took of the Big Lubowoski (and Maude stole back.)
Well here it is again:
Funny thing is, I do not know who is using the photo, or where on the internet is posted.
The Metropolitan Museum in New York has made a tremendous contribution to the public domain by releasing hundreds of thousands of photos under a Creative Commons Zero license. The Museum has made available a wealth of information licensed for almost any use. Here are a few examples found in a search for “weaving”.
http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/14794?sortBy=Relevance&what=Woven&ao=on&ft=*&offset=10608&rpp=100&pos=10638
http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/44125?sortBy=Relevance&what=Woven&ao=on&ft=*&offset=10708&rpp=100&pos=10727
http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/13552?sortBy=Relevance&what=Woven&ao=on&ft=*&offset=10508&rpp=100&pos=10593
http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/67544?sortBy=Relevance&what=Woven&ao=on&ft=*&offset=9808&rpp=100&pos=9825
http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/73310?sortBy=Relevance&what=Woven&ao=on&ft=*&offset=10708&rpp=100&pos=10755
http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/316416?sortBy=Relevance&what=Woven&ao=on&ft=*&offset=10908&rpp=100&pos=11002
I received an excellent question from our contact form recently about the lack of Red Rugs available for purchase on warrug.com lately. Below is was my response:
Your question about Red Rugs is a good one. Red Rugs were woven by refugees, primarily Turkmen, in Pakistan during the 1990’s. Since the US forced the Taliban from power in 2001 Turkmen refugees have been returning en masse to their traditional homes in Afghanistan, largely because ISAF offers them sufficient protection from the Taliban ethnic cleansing which drove many families to Pakistan during the 1990’s.
The effects of the Turkmen weavers returning to their homes in Afghanistan is, primarily, two fold. First, as refugees, if one was an engineer, one wove carpets. If one was a doctor, one wove carpets. Now the doctors and engineers are returning to their professions, so there are less weavers available to weave any type of rug. Secondly, many Turkmen weavers who wove Red Rugs in Pakistan are now weaving traditional designs or new variations of traditional designs (Khul Mohammadi mostly).
Much of the Pakistan production has moved to Afghanistan (Khul Mohammadi, Kazak, Vegetable Dye ‘Peshawar’) with the returning weavers, but not Red Rugs. I have not seen any Red Rugs produced in Afghanistan since 2001. In short, there is no more supply of Red Rugs. Occasionally I find a few Red Rugs and I post them, but they are scarce.
Lastly, this elimination of a design is not unique to Red Rugs, yet it continues to surprise me. Almost every war rug “pattern” has its moment of production, which then fades or stops. What is freely available one year, is totally unavailable the next year. Soviet Exodus rugs are one example and WTC rugs to a lesser degree.
Again, thank you for your question. Please write back if you have any further questions or comments.
Through the trade of regular rugs, and confirmed by ‘the literature’, I’ve learned this type of rug is called Latif Khel.
I am told that in the 1960 and 1970’s Latif Khel were the bulk of the Baluchi produciton, and that Latif Khels were the top quality. Furthermore, that now they constitute a very small percentage of total Baluch sajada production.
First Quality Latif Chel Prayer rug
This rug is extremely fine wool and weave. Note the similarity with color and medallions to this war rug. The flat wool sevedge is the same in this Latif Khel and war rug #1011 also. The weft substitution kilim on this rug, particularly the bottom end, are exclusive to Latif Khel rugs. This rug also has a Seh Mihrabi element in the three white arches at top, as well as four white boxes at top and bottom of field. As a sidelight, now there is a name for Baluchi rugs with the ‘slot car track’ border, like this rug; which is analagous to Kleiber’s Afghanistan page 100.
The field color is midnight blue with a band of abrash. Willful use of abrash will be the subject of a future post.
Second quality Latif Khel rug with Eight Lobed Medallions
First Quality Latif Chel War Rug #1011 (private collection)
Here is another example in the continuing series exploring how traditional Baluchi designs have morphed into war rugs.
Some earlier examples of traditional Baluchi patterns morphing into war rugs are: Murray Eilland’s Shindani rug with camel, a round vase of flowers pattern, Checkered Flowers pattern, also called Lateef Khel, Two Deer patern, Vase of Flowers, and a pattern from the Weavings of War exhibition.
