Horsecover, goat and camel hair, plain weave with warp-float patterning, made by Yomud Turkmen women, Turkestan, c. 1900 (OF).
A classic Turkestan square cut horsecover, woven in red, blue and green dyed threads using jajim technique (that is warp: float weave where by different coloured warps rather than wefts form the pattern). Is decorated with alternate vertical rows of geometric patterns and plain green and red rows with a red and blue fringed border. Underside lined with brown felt.

A horse cover (chul, Turk) was placed under the saddle on a horse or that is used otherwise to cover a horse. Many horse covers have two pieces, call 'pectorals' or 'breast pieces', that cross over the horse's chest under the neck.
The Yomud or Yomut are a Turkmen tribe occupying lands in Iran extending from the southeastern corner of the Caspian Sea and in Russian Turkestan along the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea. Subtribes include the Atabei, Djafarbei, Ogurjali and Igdyr. Their primary guls are Dyrnak, Tauk Noska and Kepse.
Turkmen woman weave rugs for domestic use and the market. Rug weaving for hte western market became a significant part of Turkmen economy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
In the earliest Yomud rugs, guls are arranged in vertical columns. In later rugs they are in offset rows. A wide variety of borrowed motifs are used in bags and special purpose weavings. These include jovals, torbas, asmalyks, engsis, bokches and tent bands.
A wider range of colours is used in the weavings of the Yomud than in the weavings of other Turkoman tribes. The dominant colour is a brownish red. The main borders usually have a white background. Both the asymmetric and symmetric knots are used in Yomud weavings. The symmetric knot is the more common. Typically, there are 100 to 150 knots per square inch in Yomud rugs.

Purchased 1984

A9970

1890

1600 mm

1100 mm