Description

This Tekke Turkoman Main Carpet is a magnificent example of a tribal carpet dating to around the middle  of the 19th century.

Like another Tekke main carpet on this website (see https://www.christopherleggeorientalcarpets.com/products/view/antique-tekke-turkoman-main-carpet/ ), it has a field design of four columns of ten primary guls (meaning ‘flowers’ in Turkic languages). They are the oldest type of gul used in Tekke main carpets. And like that carpet, so this, too, has an idiosyncratic change in the secondary guls between the first and the second rows. For further comparisons, see the Tekke main carpet of similar age and characteristics on this website (as per the above link).

The depth of the red background colour, which is derived from the madder root, the richness of the tones of red, blue, green and yellow, and the outstanding quality of the weave and the wool which feels like silk velvet – all these make this an exceptional carpet and a genuine work of tribal art. It is also a prime example of the socio-economic importance attached to such dowry pieces and the role they played in the life of these tribal groupings (see also https://www.christopherleggeorientalcarpets.com/products/view/early-tekke-turkoman-main-carpet/).

The carpet is in excellent condition, with a few very minor repairs but in full pile, and it has a wonderful, supple handle.

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