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Fine Brown Yomut Chuval ex Jon Thompson


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Fine Brown Yomut Chuval Jon Thompson To be precise, lot 34 falls most neatly into the Thompson Fine Brown Yomut group. It bears strong similarities to Annette & Volker Rautenstengel's proposed Eagle Gul groupings, i.e. trappings identified as Group II. The characteristics of this group include the use of 2-ply pile yarn; asymmetrical knot open to the right; wool weft with at least one cotton weft shoot, and a medium red-brown field colour (see Golklan-Tukmenen und ihreTeppiche). Compare this to the Paul Fong bridal camel trapping (Mackie & Thompson, plate 61) and the Allen late 18th century Eagle Gul torba (see ALLEN TORBA) which are now attributed to the Eagle Gul Group II. The Thompson piece has areas of both one or two weft shoots while Eagle Gul Group II trappings have at least two shots. This piece has wool wefts while Eagle Gul Group II have "wool weft with at least one cotton (not silk) weft shoot".

Lot 34 (3) is a Yomut chuval not just comparable to lot 49 of the Thompson sale, but I believe it to be the same piece even though the catalogue does not specifically say so. Joshua Lumley confirmed by telephone that this indeed the 'Thompson Fine Brown Yomut'. According to my notes Thompson Sale lot 49 sold for a hammer price before the buyers premium was $12,075.

To be precise, lot 34 falls most neatly into the Thompson Fine Brown Yomut group. It bears strong similarities to Annette & Volker Rautenstengel's proposed Eagle Gul groupings, i.e. trappings identified as Group II. The characteristics of this group include the use of 2-ply pile yarn; asymmetrical knot open to the right; wool weft with at least one cotton weft shoot, and a medium red-brown field colour (see Golklan-Tukmenen und ihreTeppiche). Compare this to the Paul Fong bridal camel trapping (Mackie & Thompson, plate 61) and the Allen late 18th century Eagle Gul torba (see ALLEN TORBA) which are now attributed to the Eagle Gul Group II. The Thompson piece has areas of both one or two weft shoots while Eagle Gul Group II trappings have at least two shots. This piece has wool wefts while Eagle Gul Group II have "wool weft with at least one cotton (not silk) weft shoot".

Are we to believe that the areas of single weft is where the Eagle Gul group weaver skipped a weft because she did not have any cotton? Maybe she only had silk but did not want to switch sub-groups so she only used wool. This points to a weakness in the Rautenstengel paradigm. If a weaver runs out of cotton wefts, do they either a) stop weaving, or b) shift tribal allegiance. Structure is important but basing attributions strictly on structural oddities seems less than ideal. So until we come up with a better designation I will think of this as a Thompson Fine Brown Yomut group chuval.

This is from an article I wrote for Cloudband. cloudband - GREAT EXPECTATIONS Barry O'Connell Auction Preveiw, 31 May 2002.

For Further Reading:

Guide to Rugs & Books

The Persian Carpet

JBOC's Notes on the Bible

Southwest Asia Time Line

Thanks and best wishes,

J. Barry O'Connell Jr.

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