Vintage Afghan Bokhara (Turkmen) hand-knotted rug, 297 × 206 cm
Vintage Afghan Bokhara (Turkmen) hand-knotted rug, 297 × 206 cm
Including taxes and shipping
- 297 x 206 cm (9 ft 9 in x 6 ft 9 in), 6.1 sqm
- Wool pile on wool foundation, hand-knotted
- Woven in North Afghanistan / Turkmen belt, Afghanistan
- Free worldwide shipping with tracking
- 30-day returns
- Lifetime warranty*
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Vintage hand knotted Afghan Bokhara rug, also called Turkmen or Bokhara after the historic trading city. Woven in Afghanistan around 1980. Size 297 × 206 cm (approx. 9 ft 9 in × 6 ft 9 in).
How it is made
This is a hand knotted pile rug: each knot is tied by hand onto the warp, then the weft is packed, and the pile is sheared. A piece this size is weeks to months of work, not a machine pass. 100% wool pile on a sturdy foundation. Wool gives a soft hand, natural insulation, and long wear. Vegetable dyes were used for the red field and the dark guls. Plant dyes age in a living way. Slight variation in the red is normal and part of the piece.
The design
The repeating octagonal medallions are the classic Turkmen gul, often called the elephant foot gul in the trade. They are tribal emblems, not random decoration. Each gul type is linked to a Turkmen group and was used on main carpets that showed household identity. The deep red field with navy and rust guls, multiple geometric borders, and short ivory fringe is the look dealers mean by Afghan Bokhara.
Who made this tradition
Turkmen weavers, historically women in family workshops across the Turkmen regions of Afghanistan and neighbouring areas, knotted these carpets for the home and for trade along routes through Bokhara. The same gul language appears on chuvals and main carpets. This 1980s Afghan example continues that workshop tradition: wool, hand knots, tribal geometry, vegetable colour.
Condition
Excellent vintage condition. Pile looks unused. Strong colour. Not a newly made rug. About 45 years old.
Origin for customs: Afghanistan. Handmade wool pile.
Ships rolled from Bangkok. One of a kind.
Description
How it is made
This is a hand knotted pile rug: each knot is tied by hand onto the warp, then the weft is packed, and the pile is sheared. A piece this size is weeks to months of work, not a machine pass. 100% wool pile on a sturdy foundation. Wool gives a soft hand, natural insulation, and long wear. Vegetable dyes were used for the red field and the dark guls. Plant dyes age in a living way. Slight variation in the red is normal and part of the piece.
The design
The repeating octagonal medallions are the classic Turkmen gul, often called the elephant foot gul in the trade. They are tribal emblems, not random decoration. Each gul type is linked to a Turkmen group and was used on main carpets that showed household identity. The deep red field with navy and rust guls, multiple geometric borders, and short ivory fringe is the look dealers mean by Afghan Bokhara.
Who made this tradition
Turkmen weavers, historically women in family workshops across the Turkmen regions of Afghanistan and neighbouring areas, knotted these carpets for the home and for trade along routes through Bokhara. The same gul language appears on chuvals and main carpets. This 1980s Afghan example continues that workshop tradition: wool, hand knots, tribal geometry, vegetable colour.
Condition
Excellent vintage condition. Pile looks unused. Strong colour. Not a newly made rug. About 45 years old.
Origin for customs: Afghanistan. Handmade wool pile.
Ships rolled from Bangkok. One of a kind.
Material
Wool
Hand-spun sheep’s wool is springy and warm. It holds dye inside the fibre, recovers after it is walked on, and wears slowly, over decades rather than years.
The foundation, the grid of threads the rug is woven on, is wool too, so the whole rug moves and ages as one.
Specifications
- Size
- 206 × 297 cm (6 ft 9 in × 9 ft 9 in)
- Area
- 6.1 m²
- Shape
- Rectangular
- Pile
- Wool
- Foundation
- Wool
Foundation
The warp and weft: the grid of threads the pile is knotted onto. A cotton foundation keeps a rug flat and square; a wool one moves with the pile.
- Weave
- Hand-Knotted
Weave
Hand-knotted rugs have a pile made of individual knots tied by hand around the warp. Flatweaves such as kilims are woven with no pile, so they are thinner and often reversible.
- Age
- About 46 years
- Condition
- Excellent (Aged but Brand New)
- Made in
- North Afghanistan / Turkmen belt, Afghanistan
- Design
- Bokhara
- Pattern
- Geometric
- Colours
- Red / Rust, Blue / Navy
- Rug ID
- 1
