This small rectangular knotted pile textile is a wedding trapping or jollar. It was made by a nomadic Turkmen woman belonging to the Kizil Ayak Turkmen tribe of northern Afghanistan. Jollars were used to decorate the back of a camel for a wedding ceremony. Although missing in this example, jollars were generally ornamented with a long fringe or tassels along the lower edge. When the wedding was over, a backing was often added to the jollar to turn it into a bag for use as storage inside the tent. This example is just over 1.4 metres wide and 37.5 cm high, which is in the mid range for these wedding trappings.

The design is interesting in that the main motif or gul closely resembles examples woven by Ersari Turkmen women, but has been identified as Kizil Ayak Turkmen as many of the features by which Kizil Ayak weaving is identified are present, even down to the inclusion of tiny fragments of pink silk. The Kizil Ayak are sometimes described as a subgroup of the Ersari. Designs like this, in which the guls are based on a grid pattern, most certainly had their origins in the ikat weaving of the neighbouring urban centres of Central Asia. The dyes are all natural which accounts for the wonderful depth of colour in the piece, especially the brilliant red which was probably achieved by blending cochineal (an insect dye) with madder (a vegetable dye). Kizil means red in the Turkic languages. Although available in Russia by about 1860, synthetic dyes may not have reached the area until after the construction of the Transcaucasian Railroad in 1886.

The jollar has been dated to between 1880 and 1885, which is unusually early as there are no surviving examples which can be dated with certainty to before 1800.

Christina Sumner, Principal Curator Design & Society
June 2010

References
Eiland, Murray L. Jr. & Murray Eiland III, 'Oriental Rugs: a complete guide' (Laurence King, London, 1998)
Thompson, J. 'Carpets from the tents, cottages and workshops of Asia' (Laurence King, London, 1993)

Wedding trapping (jollar), wool, knotted pile, Kizil Ayak Turkmen, northern Afghanistan, 1880 - 1885

A long small rectangular pile weave wedding trapping or jollar, asymmetrically knotted, in which the warp is the short measurement and the weft the long measurement. Both selvedges (short sides) are intact with dark blue bindings; the long top edge (cut warp ends) is bound with black wool immediately over the pile and close to the outer guard stripe, while the long lower edge has a flat weave strip which is turned under and tacked down.

The pattern is asymetrical, featuring two and a half large guls (motifs) of geometric design, with a fourth large gul offset in the bottom left hand corner and smaller guls in between. The geometric design of the guls themselves is based on a grid of small squares.

The design of this small wedding trapping or jollar is characteristic of Turkmen weavings generally, in that it features large and small guls, or motifs, framed by a border comprising a main stripe between narrower guard stripes. These particular guls are quite geometric in form, being composed on a grid of small squares; they are thus unusually reminiscent of Central Asian ikat patterns, which are tied and dyed into the warps in small square units prior to weaving.

This trapping displays characteristics of Kizil Ayak Turkmen weaving, in that the weaver used a warp of light undyed wool, knotted wool pile with asymmetrical knots open to the right, a light brown wool weft, and, as found in this piece, small areas of silk. The warp selvedges are usually wound with wool of the major colour of the piece in Kizil Ayak weavings, while here the colour binding the selvedges is indigo. The dark brown wool used to bind tightly the cut warps of the top edge is most probably not original, while decorative tassels which are now missing would once have been tied along the lower edge.

The dyes are all natural with madder and cochineal used for the reds, either singly or together. The very intense red was probably the result of adding cochineal to the madder. The blue wool was indigo-dyed, the browns most likely natural wools and the yellow would have come from either the delphinium sulphureum or weld (mignonette).

This small textile, called a 'jollar' in Afghanistan, was purchased by the donor Cito Cessna in Afghanistan in about 1970, when living there with his wife Lyn. Jollars were made to serve as wedding trappings which, with the addition of decorative tassels, were used to ornament carriage animals for wedding ceremonies. After the wedding, they were often given a backing and could then be put to domestic use as a storage bag to hang in the tent.

Donated by Cito and Lyn Cessna through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program, 2002

2002/143/1

1870

375 mm

1410 mm

10 mm