Some pieces start a lifelong fascination. For us, it was a Jaff Kurd bag.
It was October 1998, at the first AORTA conference in Tucson, the first show we did without our father, in an atrium-style hotel with a room near the top floor for a “booth.” While unpacking, we noticed the dealer across the expanse setting up, and that is when we first saw it: the most amazing Jaff Kurd half-kordjin we had ever encountered. We stopped everything to look closer. The piece had just come back from wash, recently sourced from a New England estate, and remarkably, it had once appeared on an 1889 household inventory list, innocuously labeled “Antique Persian Pillow.”
What is a Jaff bag?
The Jaff are a large Kurdish group, and their bags are among the most beloved of all tribal weavings. The classic format is the kordjin (a double bag) and the chuval (a larger storage bag). The faces are densely knotted with bold, hooked concentric diamonds in saturated natural color, deceptively simple, endlessly varied.
Why collectors love them
- Pure design. The latch-hook diamond lattice is tribal abstraction at its finest.
- Color. Natural dyes glowing against dark grounds.
- Intimacy. These were dowry objects, made with care, never meant to be sold.
A note on format and rarity
Antique chuval-format pieces with a surviving flat-woven back are genuinely scarce, many were originally sold as decorative “scatter rugs,” and it was simply more economical to ship a face without the extra woven back. That history is part of what makes a complete antique example so special.
Living with them
Jaff bags make superb wall art, framed or mounted, and reward close looking. We are always happy to advise on conservation-minded mounting, and on building a small, focused collection.
Have a question about a specific rug? We answer personally: price, condition, photos, and shipping. Get in touch or explore our antique Persian rugs for sale.