Baluch flatweave

Baluch weavers from Northeast Persia and Afghanistan are generally known for their pile rugs and bags. From the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Baluch production of small scatter rugs adopted the scale of comparable village production in other areas of Persia. This extraordinary Baluch flat woven sumak is an example of the type of domestic weaving that the tribal people of Khorosan would have woven for themselves. As such, it reveals some of the fundamental forms that would be adapted to suit Baluch pile weaving. Within the sumak bands of this piece, we may see the original strain of design that was mirrored, repeated, and tessellated to form so many of the popular Baluch pile patterns of both fields and borders. As such, this is both an informative and attractive piece of Baluch weaving.