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JBOC Attribution: Oriental Rugs - Persian Rugs - Hamadan Rugs - Shahsevan - Khamseh Bag Panel

Shahsevan Sumak Bag Face Detail

I spotted this Shahsevan Mafrash Panel on www.Cloudband.com offered by one of the World's top experts in the field, my old friend John Wertime author of the landmark book Sumac Bags.

Trusted Resource List Rug & Carpet Dealers In The U.S. John Wertime.

Cloudband Arcade -John Wertimes's Inventory Page

Shahsevan Sumak Bag Face

As soon as I saw this piece I was struck by the unusual design. Both the field devices and the main border are new to me. The only thing familiar to me is the repeating diamond minor border. When I spoke with John about this piece he mentioned that there are related examples in Parviz Tanavoli's Shahsavan Iranian Rugs and Textiles 1985 but that they are not identical. When I asked him about where he thought this panel is from he said it is Southern Shahsevan and that it is most likely from the Khamseh area. (Wertime O'Connell Telephone Conversation 12/09/00)

Shahsevan Sumak Bag Face

• Rare Khamseh Shahsevan Sumak Bag Face

• Size: 66cm(H) x 63.5cm(W) / 2'2"(H) x 2'1"(W)

• Region: West Asia  Persia  Northwest Persia  Shahsavan

• Item Type: Rugs and Carpets  Bags and Trappings  Bagface

• Period / Date: 19th century  mid (1834 - 1866)

• Materials: wool. cotton warps

• Structure / Technique: extra-weft wrapping (sumak)

• Comments On Condition: in very good condition and complete except for the back half

• Full Description: We know of only a very few examples of this type, which is related in construction to pls. 36 & 37 in Sumak Bags. The large octofoil medallion that dominates the face is only seen in another very small group of sumak bags, also from somewhere in Khamseh Province, NW Persia (e.g., pl. 4, Sumak Bags). It probably derives from the design vocabulary of very old Anatolian rugs, somethig the largely Turkic Shahsavan tribes would have been familiar with when they inhabited Anatolia before their migrations to NW Persia in the 16th and 17th centuries. This bag face has cotton warps and a rather thick, heavy handle despite its fine and tight weave, Like pls. 36 & 37 cited above, it has toothing along its outer border, and like all other know examples, never had an outer guard stripe. This is clearly a rare and highly collectible example, one of the very best of its type.

• John T. Wertime, Sumak Bags of Northeast Persia and Transcaucasia. 1998).

For Further Reading:

Thanks and best wishes,

J. Barry O'Connell Jr.

Index to JBOC's Rug Notes

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