Which tribes turn up most often?

Tekke, spelled tekke or teke, leads the archive, with the Merv and Akhal oases named repeatedly. Ersari of the middle Amu Darya and northern Afghanistan come next, taking in Beshir and Kizil Ayak, then Yomut of the trans-Caspian steppes. Beyond those, Salor, Saryk, Chodor, Arabachi, Igdyr, Goklen, Karadashli, Abdal and Karakalpak each appear only a handful of times. Arabachi and Abdal turn up once in a blue moon.

What is a chuval face?

A chuval is a large storage bag hung inside the yurt. The pile front is the decorated part, and the back is plain weave. Many chuvals and torbas reach the market as the face alone, separated from the back. Listings that keep the whole bag say so, with phrases like 'complete with plain weave back' or 'complete with backs and tassels'.

How old are these pieces?

The dated field spans 1750 to 1930, with the weight of it in the 1900s and 1880s, then the 1870s. The 1930s account for very few listings, so the form effectively stops there in this archive. A small number reach the 18th century, including a Salor chuval fragment and two Teke mafrash fragments from the Akhal and Merv oases. Everything else in the samples is 1800 or later.

Are Turkmen rugs always small?

No. Small and large sizes are close to evenly matched across the listings, and main carpets run to around 479 by 291 centimetres. The extremes go both ways. The oldest piece recorded in the samples is a fragment of 29 by 70 centimetres, and the largest single object is a yurt band stated at fifty feet long.

Do these weavings carry maker's names?

They don't. Attribution here is tribal and regional, given as Tekke, Ersari, Yomut, Salor and so on, sometimes with an oasis or river region attached. No workshops, weavers or retailers appear anywhere in this evidence. The design vocabulary, particularly the gul type, is what carries the attribution.

How often do these come up for sale?

Twenty-two dealers have listed in this category on Sellingantiques, and roughly seventy-two pieces come to market in a year. Supply is steady rather than occasional. Pairs are a regular feature: paired asmalyks, dizlyks, kaps, chuvals and torba faces. One listing pairs a main carpet with a matching runner, and another offered seventeen tribal salt bags as a single lot.

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Antique Turkmen Rugs

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Hand-knotted wool weavings from the Turkmen tribes of Central Asia, made on narrow looms for the yurt: storage bags, door rugs, camel trappings, dowry pieces and the big main carpet that floored the tent.