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ORIENTAL rugs and oriental carpets Notes by Barry O'Connell Spongobongo.com

Afghan War Rugs: Locomotove Afghan War Rug

Locomotive War Rug

Size: 2 foot 11 inch by 4 foot 10 inch.

This is a very collectable older Baluch War Rug from a German Collection and should be of real interest to serious war rug collectors.

This belongs to a rare group of war rugs called the Locomotive group. Here we see where some of the tanks begin to look like locomotives. It is very unusual representational art.

A number of years ago I wrote an article for Oriental Rug Review called Afghan War Rugs: If it Walks Like a Duck.... In it I broke a lot of new ground trying to attribute the various types of war rugs to where they were made. When I was writing that article there was a real question in my mind whether the Baluch weavers ever actually wove war rugs in any great numbers. Now a few years later I have come to the conclusion that during the war of Russian Aggression most of the "Baluchi" war rugs were not Baluch but that approximately 10 to 20% of them actually were

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Color is difficult over the internet, please use the Direct Scan below for the best representation of color in this rug

Baluch War Rug , Northwest Afghanistan. 1980s. Inventory #:464 War rug

Size: 2 foot 11 inch by 4 foot 10 inch.

Structure: Asymmetrical knot open to the left. 8 knots per horizontal inch and 11 knots per vertical inch. 88 per square inch (1364 per square decimeter)

Yarn Spin: Z.

Warp: 2 ply tan, red, blue, green wool.

Weft: 2 shot gray wool.

Pile: 2 wool singles.

Ends: 1 inch floating weft sections and band of 2 pick oblique interlacing with 2 inch warp fringe (top), 1 inch floating weft and heavy crossed wefts with 1 inch fringe (bottom).

Selvages: 3 cord reinforced black goat.

Handle: Light, pliable, soft wool, durable.

Further Notes: Very good condition, small repair made in knotted pile.

Direct Scan

There are some interesting weapons. There is a heavy machine gun or an anti aircraft. As I studied the Afghan war and the war rugs it became obvious that weapons have a rank in the hierarchy of arms status. Bolt action rifles were very low status and surprisingly RPG-7 shoulder fired rockets were so low status that they were given to children. AK 74 were very high status. I remember reading about cases where men would prefer an AK74 with only 8 bullets than carry a bolt action Lee-Enfield with plenty of rounds. Anti aircraft guns are very high status, every man would surely want to mount one on the roof of his house if he could.

For information on War Rugs please see:

Afghan War Rug Question - RugNotes

Afghan War Rugs: If it Walks Like a Duck... by J. Barry O'Connell, Jr. (Oriental Rug Review, March, 1997)

For a discussion of Afghan Baluch and Baluch type see:

Parsons, R. D. Oriental Rugs Volume 3 The Carpets of Afghanistan. Woodbridge: Antique Collectors Club, 1983, 3rd ed. 1994.

Thanks and best wishes,

J. Barry O'Connell Jr.

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