Nathan K. wrote:Well done, RugPro!
Colors are a subtle thing, Jilly; it takes awhile to get a feel for them (and I'm still learning). On my last trip to Turkey, we saw a distinct difference between western, central, and eastern Turkish rug colors, but it's hard to put into words. Definitely a shift from primary colors in the west (where there are more tourists), to more unusual (but still beautiful) color combinations in the east. To me, this is part of what intrigues me about rug ID - putting all these little clues together.
Fascinating post. And I agree and so did Einstein who said, between the academic/cognitive and intuitive/instinctual re intelligence, the latter are the higher. Perhaps unfathomable by conventional means but never inaccessible.
Also re colors....and boy, I envy yr travels far and wide to experience things fist hand....what marks all of life most is its dynamic,. evne the language is a living, metamorphosing entity, and I mean officially in each new edition of a given dictionary. Perhaps we ought distinguish between classic, tradition colors and their origins within a given country and what is giong on currently. Not only are neo persians...I have learned, of formidable quality....like my new rug, being made places distant from the originals, but cultures morph, are impacted by things geo political... and tastes change.
Apparently, there was a time when "American" painted Sarouks fell out of favor here and many were sent to Germany where the marketplace was growing. And then that began to change. Then, there was what contributed to the initial failure of the not painted imported Sarouks in the first place between the two great wars which led to their being painted. Same deal with who finds abrash attractive and who a blight.
And all of this is inexorably entwined with cultural precepts, how manufactured, versus how organically evolved... how much the victim of commerce a given demographic might be within the culture. It also involves the tenets or respective religions, symbolism......it is infinite.
I recall once writing here somewhere, that, during my rug Hunt....reading a gazillion posted feedbacks by people who had purchased often no money, no reserve rugs on ebay.....how many people were entirely thrilled by their purchases & waxed ecstatic in their feedbacks. Most, missing academic data. First, it boggled......then it began to nourish and delight me as I came to get the purity of their responses. I thought about all of it in my journey.
Yr initial comment re you would like to be able to savor the rug more by knowing it is special in academic ways drew me. given that is often the core issue in all of the above. Now, yr mention re the orphan.....and that it might be nicer not to know too much should it compromise the purity of yr respons--this was very good illustration--same deal. I think the goal is to gather the hard data but never let owning it hold us hostage ot preclude seeing and experiencing everything fuly and with original sensibility.
the best m3edical diagnosticians are not necessarily those who did best in medical school.....but rather those with the intact gift of differential seeing. I find htis is true in ALL ARENAS. also re definition of imagination: "the ability to see relationships between and among elements and phenomena not theretofore conventionally related."
Remember, one of the thing which marked Nazi Germany was everything BY THE BOOK AND BLIND LOYALTY & obedience to the then orthodoxy.
This would make amazing thesis, yes? No, a giant book!! I do, actually write about such things. Cause however unexpectedly, I see their presence very often.