Ersari Turkmen chuval, south Turkmenistan or Afghanistan, third quarter 19th century Ersari Turkmen chuval, south Turkmenistan or Afghanistan, third quarter 19th centuryLarge chuval with a gul that is similar to a type of gul used in Tekke chuvals, with a double-diamond design inside. The secondary gul is quite large, looks like a variant of the Tekke chemche gul.
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The main border contains a very common turkmen motive, a box with rams horns at opposite sides and a quartered diamond in the centre. Nice row of bold star-shaped motives (or geometricised rosettes?) along the top. The badam or shudur guard borders (the outer one has a blue, the inner blue-green ground) use botehs that tell of a Persian influence. Flower or shrub motive used in the reduced elem. If it wasn't for the coarser knotting, the kots open to the left, and the Persian influence in the guard borders, the chuval could be mistaken for Tekke work. Note the one ‘double boteh’ flower head in the blue ground outer shudur guard border on the right side piled in cochineal dyed silk with two tiny green silk centres.
The chuval measures 3ft.1in. x 5ft.1in. (94cm x 155m). The warps are just very slightly depressed, asymmetric knots open to the left , ca. 9 knots per inch horizontal x 10 knots vertical (ca. 90 kpsi). The warps are grey wool or possibly goat hair, The wefts have two passes of thin brown wool. The pile is velvety, dense and short-clipped, the handle is firm and flexible, leathery.
All natural dyes, made before the advant of synthetic dyes in this area. Beautiful saturated madder red, one brick tone and and a darker red, different shades of indigo, dark blue-green, off-white, medium brown for outlining, chochenille and light green used in one area of silk pile.
Overall wear, heaviest in centre, slight loss to base elem and to upper left side (see images). There are three small holes in the centre have been closed with purplish darning (see image). No stains or stiff areas, no bleeding, no odour. The chuval is not dirty but washing may bring out the beautiful colours more strongly.
