Magic Carpets From Far Away Lands
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| stock photo |
One thing they all are, however are handmade works of art in a utilitarian form. Oriental rugs come found Iran (once known as Persia), Turkey, Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Daghestan, Turkmenistan, Nepal, China, India, Romania; also from Albania, Hungary, Egypt, Greece, and Morocco, though to a lesser extent. What they never are, are machine made. It may have an oriental design, but if it's machine made, then it is not real.
Works of art in a utilitarian form couldn't be more true. They are gorgeous and in their countries, for the most part, are not anything special. They throw them over horses, make saddle bags out of them, use them as flooring; they are meant to be used, in harsh climates, on the dirt and sand, hang from door openings. They are not these pretty, delicate little things to be purchase for thousands of dollars and sent out for special cleanings, as they are in western Europe, Canada, and the US.
Obviously some carpets are made to be special; they are grave and prayer rugs. Grave rugs are rugs made by the family to be placed over the grave of their loved one, the way we would place flowers. Prayer rugs are special and only to be used during prayer times. But most rugs are not this special. Most rugs are used like your everyday items by the people in the countries who make and own them. Like the beautiful rug you only paid $30 for. It is we, the westerners who make them worth more than gold.
That is not to say that I don't like them; I absolutely adore Oriental carpets! I would like to think that I would like them regardless, but I often wonder if my love of them isn't because I was always surrounded by them.
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| Published 1978 |
That book? It was the first book my aunt published. I've mentioned in a previous post that my mother and aunt were adopted. My aunt is Armenian. She is also a genius. When she was sixteen, she was shipped off to university; partly because she was intelligent enough to be accepted early, and partly because her birth family came looking for her. At university she was studying science. Somehow she switched to Oriental carpets and went on from there. She was teaching a class on it before she wrote her first book.
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| Dust jacket bio |
By the time of this book, she had been married to her first husband for almost ten years and had already had my brother nine years previously. For anyone who hasn't read any past posts, my family raised him for some time. My sister and I claimed him as our brother, and he his sisters, though we aren't even blood related, much less siblings. But that didn't matter. Sadly, he passed away on 26. December 2005. My aunt is still alive and, presumably, well. But I'll get to that in a minute. First all of the rugs I'm familiar with that were featured in this book.
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| Qum, 3x2x5 |
This carpet was owned by my grandmother. Technically my grandparents, but my grandfather died right before I was born, so I never knew him. We did not inherit any of my grandmothers rugs that were featured in either of the books, but were taken back by my aunt. Only fair since they were probably gifts anyway. We did inherit some, just not any that were featured. But I remember this one well. It hung on the wall over her staircase to the basement. It was really beautiful in person. This is a Qum (Ghoum, Qom) rug in a garden design. It hails from the holy city of Qum in Iran (Persian) and uses the Persian knot. Made of silk and wool. They've only been making these rugs since the 1930's.
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| Ingeles, 4x6x7 |
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| Dergazine, 3x4x5 |
This is only one of two of my parents rugs featured in any of my aunts books (I wish they all were, then I would know exactly what all of them were, where they are from, and what they are made out of). Both of them were gifts from my aunt. This one is currently in our den. It is a Dergazine (Dergezine, Dargazin) made in the Dergazine district in Iran. It uses the Turkish knot, made of cotton and wool and is an extremely durable rug.
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| Hamadan, 3x4x5 |
This is another of my grandmothers rugs. It is a Hamadan, made in the Hamadan region of Iran. It uses the Turkish knot and is made of cotton and wool. It is extremely durable. It is also a much better quality than the rug we own. The field of ours is compose of detached floral sprays (the field is inside the border). There are only five differing floral sprays in our field. The border is also quite simple with an inner and outer zagging pattern and a medallion and hourglass repeated motif in the inner border.
This rug however has an insane amount of detail, which just makes it exquisitely gorgeous! The middle border is quite intricate compared to ours, with no less than four different patterns. The field is comprised of people, meandering vines and flowers, as well as three other patterns outside of the main field. The main field has sixteen different designs. If you read my previous post about antiques. This was what I was referring to. Yes, we have a real Oriental carpet. But it is akin to something from TJMaxx compared to my grandmothers which could be owned by someone like Donald Sutherland (he did purchase a lot of rugs from my aunt.) Basically, our carpet is average, thus quite inexpensive. My grandmothers would be extremely pricey because it took a lot more time and work to create the one that she owned.
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| Ardebil, 3x4x8 |
Another of my grandmothers rugs. It is an Ardebil (Ardabil) from Ardebil in Iran near the Caucasus region and thus reflects that style. It uses the Turkish knot, made of wool, with the main theme being diamond-shaped medallions.
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| Published 1980 |
Then she published her second book the year that I was born. She was still married to her first husband, though would soon, in a few years, be trying for a divorce. She had already started her globe trotting, sometimes with my grandmother, in the seventies. She had been to most of the places she writes about in her books and purchased rugs from all of those countries; as gifts and for herself.
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| Dust jacket photo |
This is the way that I remember my aunt looking for most of my life. Jeans and sweaters; that hair, and also large reading glasses, though those aren't pictured. That of course is her cat, but I didn't know it, though my sister knew his name and said he was mean. I did, however, meet her Burmese cat which she named Serapi which is a type of rug from the Sarab region in northern Iran.
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| Peking Design, 3x5 |
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| Chinese rug, 6x6 |
This is one of my parents' rugs. Again it was a gift from my aunt. It is a Fo-dog and it is hanging on their bedroom wall. It is made of all silk and is very small.
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| Chinese carpet, 2x4 |
This was one of my grandmothers. It is from the late 1800's and made in Suiyan, inner Mongolia.
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| Published 1994 |
By 1994, my aunt had published her third book. She had also divorced her husband, had been living in Montreal for the past ten years (maybe a little more), and had been working at the Oriental rug store Ararat de Tapis with her then future husband. He is also Armenian, born and raised in Montreal. None of us liked him when we met him and we still do not. That went for myself, as well as my parents, sister and brother. He was extremely arrogant, condescending and felt that everyone (I mean everyone, not just my family) were so far beneath him that it would be too good if he wiped the soles of his couture leather shoes on us. But it was his family store and she was marrying into it and she seemed fine with him.
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| Dust jacket bio |
Besides the two of them rug shopping in foreign locales, they also merely went on holiday; Turks and Caicos, Papua New Guinnea, and Indonesia mostly. They were married in 1995 and I was her bridesmaid. Things were fine until my grandmothers death in early 2005. After the funeral, we went to O'Charley's because my grandmother had liked it there. We included, my family, my godparents, my brother, my aunt and her husband, some friend of hers from college, and my grandfather's nephew and his wife. My aunts husband decided to be cruel and arrogant, with the college friend and the nephews wife jumping on board. My aunt a little too. The only people on our side were the nephew, my parents, and my godparents. My brother and I followed my sister when she left the table. We already didn't like my aunts husband but that was the end of him for all of us. Things were tense. I actually shouted at my aunt at the graveside because she insisted that my brother leave early. She was always getting him to leave us early. This time it was so she could play matchmaker between him and the college friends daughter. I had only been upset with my aunt one other time. When I was a teenager and she came for a visit and was going into one of her stories about one of her trips and how I would love it and too bad I couldn't go. It wasn't a good week for me anyway and I became angry that she was always rubbing that in my face. In both instances her mouth just formed an o and her eyes became a little wider. That was all.
My mother and aunt had already been cleaning out my grandmothers estate prior to her death, because she'd been in a home since 2001. My mom gathering what items were left and the selling of the house happened around the time of my brothers death in late 2005, and his funeral in early 2006. He was buried here because my grandparents had purchased a plot each for my mom and aunt. My aunt gave up her plot, because why would she want to be buried here. After the funeral and my aunt and her husband left, my mother decided that my aunt was a bitch who stole all of my mothers inheritance and therefor would have nothing more to do with her. We tried to point out that she should have spoken to her sister sooner if she felt slighted, or spoken up about wanting such and such. She didn't. She kept telling her sister 'I don't know.', 'That's fine.' and 'Oh, no, I don't need that.' so she only had herself to blame.
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| Ararat de Tapis, going out of business |
My aunt and her husband visited once after my brothers death. My aunt was attending her high school reunion and my mother met them at a restaurant for dinner. The funeral was the last time my sister or I saw her. We admit that we have stalked her online, however. Her husband sold Ararat and they left Montreal. They now spend time between their home in upper state New York (which they had built in the early part of 1995) and a condo they have somewhere in Florida. They travel for fun and often to south American because she's a part of some help give kids books and get them an education type of thing. She has also gone blonde, which is odd (also the only photo of her I could find online). Ok, not all of that is from internet stalking, the selling of Ararat, her going blonde and the purchase of the condo are; the others are from cards she sends to my mom. I did make contact with her a few years ago. I sent her some Victrola records. She got the Victrola, but we ended up with all the records 78's or not. We didn't need them, so I packaged them up, told her we miss and love her and sent them to her in New York. She sent me a card for my birthday that year. Sometime I hadn't realized I missed since they stopped showing up in 2006. She continues to write to my mom. She has finally visited Armenia and they keep going back. My mom has two small saint icons from the past two birthdays. She is still upset with my aunt, however, and has only written back once in all these years.
It's strange not really having her in our lives since she was always such a huge (and rather wonderful) part of it. Especially considering we would not have any of our rugs without her, nor would I have been exposed to and probably wouldn't love Oriental carpets otherwise. She did that. We owe all of that to her. I can not walk around this house without stepping all over her gifts and influence. There is at least one, sometimes more rugs, in every single room, including the bathrooms. We have them hung on the walls. She once gave me a button, which I still have that says, 'I heart (with a heart symbol) Oriental Rugs'. We have her books.
That doesn't even begin to count the cards, postcards, holy hardware (which is what she referred to religious items as), gifts from foreign countries, or just the every day memories we made with her. It's an odd feeling, knowing that there is this estrangement. That we might not ever see her again. That we might not ever be told when she passes away. It's a weird void; that she is the last surviving member of my mothers family. One would think that would make us closer (my family and her), but it's only driven us further apart.
It's unlikely, but I do really hope that we see her again, in good health. That things do go out on the odd note that they are at currently. My sister and I do really miss her. We both really love her too. Not for the gifts, though I won't deny that they are awesome, but just because she is our aunt Jan, and was always so beautiful and really grand and we just liked spending time with her, having her presence mingling with ours.
It's unlikely, but I do really hope that we see her again, in good health. That things do go out on the odd note that they are at currently. My sister and I do really miss her. We both really love her too. Not for the gifts, though I won't deny that they are awesome, but just because she is our aunt Jan, and was always so beautiful and really grand and we just liked spending time with her, having her presence mingling with ours.
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