Baluch Goathair Tent

[Aries]

Baluch Goathair Tent





This rare Baluch tent was purchased in 1977 outside the city of Herat, Afghanistan. Included with the tent are over 80 items ranging from looms to cooking utensils. The approximate age of this tent is 60-70 years old. Goathair was the material of choice for weaving the outer shell because of its strong resistance to the weather. The inner framework consists of two long arced pieces of wood to support the middle and various shorter pieces fot the front and back openings.

Recently the complete tent was on exhibition in the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College, Ohio. This tent and its pieces would be an excellent artifact for any museum's or serious collector's central asian collection.

http://www.antique-carpets.com/tent.html

[Ahmed]

Nice Post Aries.. Gr8 Job...

I would like to add some more about baluchi carpets - its a site that I saw some time back - after I found some Baluchi carpets made of original silk from Belgium. The carpets were on sale on a local Carrefour retailer and they just stood out of the rest. I think most of the ppl looking at the carpets judged them as the best...

A Google search will give thousands of pages worth of information about Baluchi carpets - they are much more well known than what we think...

Some pics from eruggallery.com


Abstract Geometrical Animals



Tree of Life (Prayer Rug/Jaaey Nemaaz/Nemaazeig)



Mina Khani

A small article accompanying the beautiful pics on the site:

Baluchi rugs are mainly woven by Baluchi tribal weavers in southwest of Pakistan, northeast of Iran and northwest of Afghanistan. Baluchi rugs are mainly geometric. The Blauchi tree-of-life prayer rug is the most well known of all Baluchi designs. Other designs include repeating all-overs with floral motifs or repeating all-overs with abstract living creatures such as animals (birds are common) and humans. The main colors used in Baluchi rugs are red, dark blue, camel, beige and white. A common border design is a zigzag design also seen in Turkoman and Anatolian borders. Baluchi rugs are generally made in small sizes.
Even though Baluchi rugs are sometimes sold under the name of the specific tribe which has woven them such as the Mushwani, Nishapur, Dokhtar-e-Ghazi, Koudani and Haft Bolah and the village of Chichaksu, often times Baluchi rugs are marketed by the names of Mashad or Herat Baluchi. Herat Baluchi rugs are made in Afghanistan and are mainly prayer rugs. The Mashad Baluchi rugs are made in Iran and are generally all-over repeats.
The famous tree-of-life prayer rug has several minor borders and guard strips. The mihrab is in a camel color, usually undyed camel hair, which looks like a very geometric narrow and long human trunk with a square head. Above the mihrab arch, on the field, there are two square corners very similar to the design and the color of the interior of the mihrab itself. The design inside the mihrab includes a tree with several branches with maple leaves. Each leaf is divided into four quarters. The quarters across from each other are the same color; two are blue and two are red. Inside the head (top of the tree) the leaves become more similar to the Turkoman gul. The borders are generally in red, navy and very little white with small geometric shapes that look similar to hooks or the Turkoman gul.
In the all-over layout with repeating floral motifs, a common design consists of rows of red square flowers with smaller white flowers in between the rows. The background is generally dark blue and the flowers are usually inside a lattice of some form, sometimes a diamond shape. The main borders are generally red. The minor borders have the zigzag design in white. These designs are often called Mina-khani.

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