West Turkestan, c. 95 x 117 cm, late 18th century, asymmetrical knot open to the left in dense warp layering, H 45, V 60 = 2,700 kts/sqm; all Salor central carpets are characterised by an extremely homogeneous pattern, also along their borders, with only minor exceptions in isolated cases. The present fragment in bright madder red is the lower left part with two preserved rows of four classical gulli guls each as primary design and “mini chuval guls” as secondary motifs. Unlike minor Salor products, silk was only sparingly used, or not at all, as pile material for their central carpets. In this fragment, too, silk knots, at times individual ones, can be found only in the core of the border decorations. This piece with low pile is in good colour condition. The original left side has survived - all other edges are trimmed.

Further reading:
Elena Tsareva, Turkmen Carpets, Masterpieces of Steppe Art, from 16th to 19th Centuries, The Hoffmeister Collection, ill. 2a and 2b; Jürg Rageth, Turkmenische Teppiche, Ein neuer Ansatz, vols I and II, cat. nos 16, 17 and 18; Elena Tsareva, Turkmen Carpets, The Neville Kingston collection, ill. pp. 26 and 27; Robert Pinner and Murray L. Eiland Jr. Between the Black Desert and the Red, Turkmen Carpets from the Wiedersperg Collection, pl. 1; Catalogue of the exhibition “Wie Blumen in der Wüste”, on the occasion of the 7th International Conference on Oriental Carpets (ICOC), Museum für Völkerkunde, Hamburg, pl. 96; Uwe Jourdan, Battenberg Antiquitäten-Katalog, Turkmenische Teppiche, ill. 1; Werner Loges, Turkmenische Teppiche, ill. 17 and 18.