Turkmen rug | 380 x 292 cm | Nr. 20683

Turkmen rug

Delivery time	2 days
Origin	Turkmenistan
Dimensions	380 cm x 292 cm (= 11.1 m²)
Construction	hand-knotted
Material	Pile: wool (hand-spun, natural dyes)
knots	160.000
Condition	pre-owned, cleaned & partially restored
Edition	one-of-a-kind piece

Origin

This rug was knotted by members of the Turkmen tribes. The Turkmen are known above all for their Bukhara rugs. Bukhara (sometimes also written Bochara) is an oasis city in Uzbekistan that lies on the former Silk Road. Although no rugs were actually knotted in Bukhara itself, the city gave its name to many Oriental rugs, because they were traditionally exported to the West from Bukhara. These rugs, however, were knotted by Turkmen tribes such as the Yomoudh or the Tekke.

Material

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

But the effort is worth it: dyeing with natural colours allows the high-quality wool to keep its natural oil content. Wool that has been dyed with natural colours and spun by hand creates fascinating, shimmering patterns. The charm of hand-spun wool, with its slight irregularities and natural shades, comes into its own as a contrast in modern interiors, but equally in rooms furnished in a more traditional or country style.

The foundation (weft and warp threads) of this Turkmen rug is made of new wool.

Condition

You are not the first to take a liking to this Turkmen rug. It had owners before you who valued it and used it. It was knotted in around 106. It has been thoroughly cleaned and is in good but only partly restored condition. The pile of this lovely piece has grown thinner in places. The fringes could also do with a repair. We have not fully restored this Turkmen rug, because we feel it has a special charm exactly as it is. If that is what you would like, we will of course be happy to carry on restoring it for you. We can bring almost any rug back to near-perfect condition.