Old Tekke | 180 x 122 cm | Nr. Z-3446

Geometric old Tekke, light red with border and diamonds

Origin	Turkmenistan
Dimensions	180 cm x 122 cm (= 2.196 m²)
Construction	hand-knotted
Material	Pile: wool (hand-spun, natural dyes) Weft: cotton Warp: pure silk
knots per m²2	490.000
Pile height	5mm
Year of manufacture	1940
Colour	Light red, Beige-yellow
Edition	one-of-a-kind piece

Origin

The Tekke are the main tribe of the Turkmen. They live in the Republic of Turkmenistan and in Afghanistan. In earlier times the Tekke were nomads and much given to raiding. Today most of them are settled and live peacefully as farmers. After the break-up of the Soviet empire, however, some returned to a nomadic way of life. The majority of the Tekke live in the now independent Republic of Turkmenistan, where they knot rugs in the cities of Ashgabat and Mary and the surrounding areas.

During the communist revolution, numerous Tekke clans moved to the neighbouring states of Afghanistan and Iran. Others live in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Tekke rugs are among the famous Turkmen rugs, whose patterns are also copied in Pakistan. Tekke rugs are also traded as Bukhara rugs. Bukhara (sometimes also spelled Bochara) is an oasis city in Uzbekistan that lies on the former Silk Road. Although no rugs were ever knotted in Bukhara itself, the city has given its name to many Oriental rugs, because they were traditionally exported to the West from Bukhara. These rugs were in fact knotted by Turkmen tribes such as the Yomut or the Tekke. This old Tekke is around 80 years old and a real collector's piece.

Pattern

The edge of the rug is framed by a decorative border. The border forms a beautiful contrast with the centre.

The abstract, geometric composition is what gives this Tekke its understated elegance. The pattern flatters the design of the room and never draws attention away from the furniture, the décor and the architectural elements. It fits beautifully into any setting and complements the furnishings of a room in a subtle way.

In the pattern of this Tekke it is above all the diamonds that catch the eye. A diamond is a rhombus standing on one of its points; in Oriental rugs its four equal sides can be serrated, stepped or set with hooks. The diamond is one of the oldest basic forms in the Oriental rug. In the Islamic world it carries a symbolic meaning: it represents the immortality of the soul. That is why it is so often found as a filler motif.

The background of this Tekke is beige-yellow. Light red and beige-yellow also dominate the overall impression. The border is worked in light red and beige-yellow.

Condition

This Tekke has a story to tell. It was hand-knotted in around 1940. It has been thoroughly cleaned and is in good but unrestored condition. Some areas of the rug have changed colour. The fringes could do with a repair. We have left this Tekke unrestored because we feel it has a particular charm just as it is. If that is what you would like, we will of course gladly restore the rug for you. Either way, this Tekke will give you pleasure for decades to come.

Material

The technique used to make the materials for the pile of this Tekke is over 200 years old. The wool was dyed with natural colours and spun by hand. Dyeing with natural or plant-based colours is more complicated, more expensive and more time-consuming than dyeing with chemical dyes. For a luminous red, for example, you need around one kilo of ground madder root as dyestuff per kilo of wool. For a strong yellow that is not too pale, you even need two kilograms of the dyestuff weld per kilo of wool. Spinning the wool is time-consuming and labour-intensive too. On top of that, fewer and fewer people still master spinning wool by hand.

But the effort is worth it: dyeing with natural dyes lets the high-quality wool keep its natural oil content. Wool that has been dyed with natural colours and spun by hand creates fascinating, shifting patterns. The charm of hand-spun wool, with its slight irregularities and natural shades, unfolds as a contrast in modern interiors, but equally in rooms furnished in a more traditional or country style. The weft threads of this Tekke are made of cotton. The warp threads are made of pure silk .