Description

This Kurdish bag face from Persian Azerbaijan dates to the late 19th century.

It has an all over field design of seven rows of four red diamonds with a design of the ancient Eurasian ‘swastika’ in the centre. The colour of the swastika symbols alternates between dark brown and light green between the individual rows. Loosely scattered around the diamonds, and vaguely parallel to their outlines, are small yellow squares with a red centre. The whole pattern is set on a dark blue ground. Surrounding the field are two borders, one on a red, the second on a yellow ground. They are both decorated with small flower heads. An additional border with a chevron design forms the bottom end of the bag face, whilst the kelim end with the holes for the loops to tie up the bag are still intact at the top end, complete with some coarse soumak stitching on the edges.

A very similar bag front is illustrated in Michael Rothberg’s excellent recent publication on tribal weavings (see Nomadic Visions. Tribal Weavings from Persia and the Caucasus. Published by Hali Publications and The Near Eastern Research Centre, 2021, Plate 58, page 149). Rothberg gives Southern Azerbaijan as the area of origin for his khorjin front..

The quality of the wool pile and dyes is superb. The bag face is woven on a wool foundation. It is in full pile and in excellent condition.

£950