WEST TURKMENISTAN

Turkmen designs were woven from memory by the women of the tribes and the final product usually attested to the wealth of the family. This Yomut carpet incorporates octagonal guls exemplary of the Tauk Noska design, an ancient vein of Yomut patterning containing, characteristically, four pairs of stylized animals within sectional quadrants of the gul. True to tradition as well, the Tauk Noska guls are situated in three vertical rows comprised of ten guls each, all within a "boat" border. Not commonly found on Yomut main carpets, the "boat" border is a wonderful evolution from an earlier flower and pamette design (Mackie, L. W. and Thompson, J., Exhibition catalogue, Turkmen Tribal Carpets and Traditions, Washington D. C., 1980, pp.152-3 and pl. 65 for a Yomut carpet with a similar border).
Making this carpet significantly distinctive, however, is its incorporation of rarely seen C-devices within the minor Dyrnak-style guls in the lower section of the carpet, as well as complete skirt ends incorporating stylized tree branches ascending towards the field.