EASTERN ASIA MINOR, 18TH CENTURY

The traditional Armenian gognots, are both functional and highly decorative (Jill Condra (ed.), Encyclopaedia of National Dress: Traditional Clothing around the World Volume 1, Santa Barba, 2013, p.39). These rectangular aprons were worn by women with a bib section that fastened around the neck and were secured with a belt or sash around the waist. The two syrga or interlocking ‘S’ motif bands within the present lot are clearly indicative of the classic Yomut border, and are found on a host of Persian and Kurdish weavings. A charming addition to the present lot and one not evident in any comparable examples, is the depiction of several female figures adorned with their own stylised aprons. A very closely related example that shares a number of the same decorative elements as well as a similar vibrant palette is in the History Museum of Armenia, Yerevan, (Ben Evans, ‘The Armenian Knot’, Hali, Spring 2014, Issue 179, no.11, p.100). A further example that shares the same panelled format and weaving technique is in the Charles Grant Ellis Collection (Anthony N. Landreau & W.R. Pickering, From the Bosporus to Samarkand Flat-Woven Rugs, Washington D.C., 1969, pl.87, p.85) and three with a similar indigo ground are published in Hali (Spring 2014, ibid, no.s12-14, pp.100-101).