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Articles on Baluch Rugs
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From The Horse's Mouth - Talking ‘Baluch’ with Jerry Anderson An Interview with Jerry Anderson, transcribed, edited by Tom Cole The study of so-called ‘Baluch’ tribal weaving has reached a watershed. While on the one hand Baluch rugs have cast aside their misleading stereotyped image as derivative Turkoman bastard cousins, on the other we still find in the marketplace the promiscuous use of little understood attributions and terminology founded upon ‘scholarship’ that too often fails to rise above the level of dogma. Loosely based on the sometimes unreliable accounts written by European travellers in the region during previous centuries, or drawing on subjective interpretations of Asian myth and ethnohistory, such popular ascriptions are seldom grounded in properly conducted research or first-hand experience of eastern Iran and Afghanistan...... read more |
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Pile Rugs of The Baluch and Their Neighbors - by Dr. Dietrich H. G. Wegner (from Oriental Rug Review, July-Dec., 1985) Pile rugs are an important part of the material culture of Central Asian peoples. The attraction that emanates from these textiles inspires us to learn more about the people that produce them. Traditional patterns and colors, the way to combine them, as well as the material and the techniques of production are often determined by the ethnic origin of the weavers. This background also explains the way in which man and his product reflect foreign influences. This aspect for the Baluch and their rugs shall be studied in the following series......... read more. |
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Raising the Bar - A Khan's Carpet from Chakhansur by Tom Cole An extraordinary ‘Khan’ carpet from southwestern Afghanistan, now in the Caroline & H. McCoy Jones Collection at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, provides a new benchmark for for the appreciation and evaluation of so-called Baluch tribal rugs. |
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Baluch Style or "Baluch Aesthetics" by Tom Cole Baluch rugs are intriguing; their designs provide a window onto the past, an exceptionally graphic reflection of old traditions. The common thread throughout the literature of Baluch rug weaving is one of ethnographic information, with analysis mainly confined to technique and craft. Baluch enthusiasts and ‘experts’ typically debate which tribe or subtribe made which type, where and when, with artistic composition and aesthetic impact assuming a secondary role.....read more |
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Mind the Gap - Baluch Rugs in the Victoria & Albert Museum by Robert Pittenger The Victoria & Albert Museum, London, holds a small group of so-called 'Baluch' tribal rugs from eastern Persia and adjacent areas of Afghanistan, some with relatively early accession dates. This is not a collection of outstanding overall aesthetic merit, but there are several pieces of demonstrable age and beauty. More importantly, however, it offers the possibility of beginning a much-needed process of documentation of an ever more popular type of tribal weaving, whereas most previous contributions to the field have served mainly to emphasize the gaps in our knowledge of their time and place of origin. read more..... Posted November 27, 2004 |
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Prayer Rugs of the Timuri and Their Neighbors by Robert Pittenger The blue-ground rugs made by Timuri, Baluch, or Aimaq tribes in the Iran-Afghan border area between and around Heart and Meshed have been collected for a century. But have only recently been studied. Dr. Alfred Janata, in his talk about the 4th ICOC, gave a good kick to previously held Baluch attributions by suggesting that many of these rugs were not made by Baluch sub-tribes, but mainly by Timuris. read more....... Posted December 8, 2004 |
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Yacub Khani and Dokhtar-I-Gazi Baluch Rugs Two Timuri Related Groups by George O'Bannon This is a fourth and final article in a series considering Baluch rugs which I saw and studied in Afghanistan in the 1970s. All of the other articles (see author's bibliography entries on Taimani, Aksi, and Mushwani rugs) were about groups of rugs which were woven in the mid 20th century. This article is about two distinctive design types which derive from a group of Baluch rugs called Timuri in scholarly, collector and trade circles which are generally attributed to the last half of the 19th century. These two types are Yacub Khani and Dokhtar-i-Ghazi Baluch rugs. read more.... Posted October 9, 2005 |
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Baluch Aesthetics - A Discussion of Rugs Made in the Baluch Style by Tom Cole (originally appeared on Turkotek, Salon #98) I have observed and participated in the Baluch rug market for many years now. It remains the most enigmatic rug market to my mind, not from the sole perspective of a dealer but as a disinterested observer, a dealer as well as trying to assume the perspective of a collector. In HALI #97, I wrote an article entitled Baluch Aesthetics. Ostensibly, this article was intended as a postscript to the interview with Jerry Anderson which appeared in HALI #76. read more...
Posted October 28, 2006
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The Relationship of Baluch Weavings to An Earlier Anatolian Model by Tom Cole (an ICOC paper from the latest conference in Istanbul) If one goes through the Turk ve Islami Museum in Istanbul and views the Seljuk period material housed there, it is apparent there are two types of weavings there, one of which seems very Turkmen inspired (or rather, an aesthetic which inspired later Turkmen weavers) and the other is one where the weavings appear to bear an affinity with Baluch weavings, mostly those from Khorassan or NE Persia but colourful aesthetic of Seistan and w. Afghanstan is reflected as well. Read more. Posted May 29, 2007 NEW!! |
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