Salmiya

I had recently made efforts to draw the attention of several collectors/dealers of Iranian/Central Asian tribal textiles to the recent work of anthropologists and archaeologists who have employed contemporary methods of phylogenetic analysis of evolutionary patterns, something which I have been familiar with for some time. Unfortunately, respective efforts were, by and large, unavailing and at least to me revealed an overall amateurish approach of assessing age and provenance of newly emerging or already published "antique" pieces by self-promoted experts/dealers within a by and large shady business whose main effort is to hook future "collectors". There seems also to be, well, if not an intellectual gap between scientists and those who, at an early stage of their career, had changed areas of interest from research to commerce, clearly lack of knowledge about scientific method in the latter group. I do not directly claim that they are just conscious posers or impo...

Hand-printed cloth can be seen everywhere in Iran (and you will also find them in Kuwait in the Iranian Market in Ray or downtown, in the Souq Mubarakia). They are used as bedspreads, tablecloths, or simply for wall decoration. Wooden blocks, or models, are used to print colored patterns onto beige cotton cloth in several design steps. The finest ghalamkar may later be painted. Old and antique pieces are highly sought after. They are not cheap at all. Although the (natural) colors have been fastened by washing already, I wouldn’t dare to remove the slight stain from these two pieces I recently bought in Iran. One has the design of a prayer mat and was surely used for that purpose. As you can see, the calligraphy on top interestingly mentions Muhammad after ’Ali!