Bag face of wool, Fars, Iran, 1875-1899

Bag Face, hand knotted woollen pile on woollen warp and weft.

WARP: white wool; Z2S; slightly depressed; 22 threads per inch (100 per dm).

WEFT: purple wool; Z2S; 2 shoots after each row of knots; 14 knots per inch (60 per dm).

PILE: wool; 16 colours: dark red, red, orange, yellow/green, green, light green, very light green, dark blue, blue, light blue, very light blue, dark brown, brown, light brown, black/brown, cream; asymmetrical knot, open to the left and tied around 2 threads; 154 knots per sq. inch (2400 per sq. dm).

SIDE FINISH: each side has 5 warp threads wrapped with dark brown wool to form a single cord.
END FINISH: lower: 8 blocks of tapestry-woven diamond pattern in various colours, two colours per block. Upper: continuous tapestry-woven pattern of squares in yellow/green and red.

DESIGN: field: a large hooked central diamond contains five guls linked to form a cross. The field is crowded with small geometric and floral motifs.
Main border: cream ground with reciprocal geometric meander.
Inner guard: the lower edge is green and red, the other three are red and blue.
Outer guard: is yellow/green and red.
Lowest band: extra band of small squares in yellow/green, red, black and cream.

Given by Mr W.R. Hall

This piece though similar to T.426-1980 has slight differences in the small in-filling motifs.

The narrow upper and lower band of small squares on this bag face are usually associated with carpets and bags woven by some tribal groups in south-west Iran. The central motif is a hooked lozenge filled with carefully placed motifs and there is one cross-shaped motif in each corner but the rest of the field is scattered with tiny motifs worked wherever the weaver fancied placing them.

T.426A-1980