Antique Uzbek Okbash

Buy oriental carpets 100% handmade area carpet and rugs from Tibet. Modern and traditional design. Armenian too! www.TufenkianCarpets.com	Can't afford Tufenkian Carpets? Visit the ONLY official Tufenkian carpet outlet. Discontinued and one of kind rugs. www.TufenkianOutlet.com	Need a custom area rug? If you can dream it, we can weave it. Custom area rugs by Tufenkian

Antique Uzbek Okbash

This is an Uzbek Okbash. As a general rule Turkmen make pile Okbash and Okbash and Kirghiz make felt Okbash. George Washington O'Bannon in "Tribal and Village Rugs from Arizona Collections" mentions that one group of Uzbek makes pile Okbash. I feel firmly that this piece is Uzbek so It stands to reason that it must be from the group that O'Bannon mentions.

Pieces such as this represent what the Uzbek wove for themselves give us the best possible glimpse of what the people of Central Asia actually wove for themselves. Most rugs were woven for market but bags like this are truly an authentic piece of ethnographic folk-art.

Structure: Asymmetric knot open right. 7 knots per horizontal inch and 9 knots per vertical inch. 61 per square inch (945 per square decimeter) Not depressed.

Yarn Spin: Z.

Warp: 2 ply wool tan.

Weft: 2 ply wool, brown.

Selvage: 2 cord wrapped in brown wool.

Ends: Okbash with tassels.

Further Notes: Antique piece is in excellent condition. The tassels appear to be horse hair.

Provenance: From the collection of a prominent American Collector/Expert.

The conventional wisdom is that bags such as this were used to act as an end cap to a bundle of tent poles or struts when they were carried in migration. It is not inconceivable that they had a place as a dowry item and were used in a marriage related ceremony. It is important to remember that Uzbeks and Turkmen may live together but are separate and distinct people with different language, heritage and customs. All to often we use Turkmen words to describe Turkmen things and we base too much about the Uzbek from what we see from the Turkmen.