Ersari main tent carpet

Ersari main tent carpet

from northern Afghanistan / Uzbekistan

circa 1880

Size: 290 x 264 cm

The Ersari were one of eight or so different tribes of the Turkoman people who inhabited the area that is now part of the independent states of Turkestan and Uzbekistan as well as Afghanistan.

The principal motif in most Turkoman artefacts is the ‘gul’, an octagonal medallion repeated in a grid across the field of the rug. In the 19th century there were seven or eight different Turkoman tribes who used the ‘gul’ as a kind of totem particularly in their main tent carpets.

This handsome old tent carpet has excellent natural dyes and is of very pleasing squarish proportions.