Plate Six
1 foot 7 inches x 1 foot 9 inches
53 cm. x 54 cm.

Many of the twelve-soumak bags in this exhibition defines a specific design type after which many other, later examples have been copied. Some were frequently copied while others have very few imitators and although many of the descendant later examples are beautiful and accomplished weavings in their own right many important differences of materials, dyes and design become apparent when directly compared with the prototype examples in this exhibit.

Here a seemingly simple but actually very sophisticated central medallion with four bracket-like figures fills the central field of this soumak bag. Again a small, secondary central medallion is present. This time, however, an usual design of radiating concentric multi-colored diagonal squares appears there with vertical and horizontal extensions, which continue into the larger central medallion. The wide main border is another rarely encountered design and when it is compared to the most probably later and somewhat degenerated version on plate four, the contention, held by this writer and others, that this the earliest known soumak bag of any design is aptly supported.




No photographs or text may be reproduced without the written consent of the copyright holder, the Weaving Art Museum, Inc.