Jaff Bags
JAFF BAGS, a love afair and it's origins:
It was October 1998 and I was in Arizona, exhibiting at the first AORTA conference held in Tucson. It was a little nerve racking because it was the first conference I had done without my father and I did not know what to expect. It was an atrium style hotel and I had a room near the top floor, which would be my “booth” for the next couple of days.
As I was unpacking and starting to put up my display, I noticed that the dealer across the expanse was doing the same and that is when I fist saw the most amazing Jaff Kurd half kordjin I had ever seen. Without hesitation, I stopped what I was doing and went over to take a closer look. The dealer, who shall remain unnamed, explained that he had just gotten the piece back from wash in time for the show and that it had been recently sourced from a New England estate. Also, it was a pillow when he purchased it and it had been opend up to be cleaned. The interesting part was, the “picker” who found the piece, said at the auction, available for view was a ‘household contents’ itemized inventory list dated 1889 and on the list, innocously, was an item labeled “Antique Persian Pillow.”
Unfortunately, I was never able to get a copy of that list but the reality is, it would not have made too much of a real world difference in my opinion of this piece, which is quite extraordinary, story of it’s acquisition aside. Choosing this piece was still difficult for me because I tend to see beauty in even the most mundane examples and there are some who will always consider the larger, chuval format, the more desirable, as there were fewer made and typically they will illustrate a greater range of colors. Not that it doesn’t exist, but I have not seen an antique example in the chuval format with a surviving flat woven back. The few antique chuval format pieces that have remnants of the kelim back, usually end stopped and sewn over, are largely decorated with simple bands of blue separated by two small rows of red. Much like the relatively plain backs of the larger Turkoman trappings but perhaps less frequently found. My rationale behind the reason why there are fewer antique, chuval format pieces in general and no surviving flat woven backs is two fold. First is the intention of use. Like many nomadic dowry related objects of the time, these were originally sold as high end, decoritve “scatter rugs”. Second, it is simply more economocal to send a product over seas that does not have any unecessary additional weight.