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BALUCH RUGS AT AUCTION 1983-1988

by George W. O'Bannon

No. 2, Dokhtar-i-Ghazi prayer rug

Baluch rugs have always been the stepchildren of the rug world. Kurdish rugs may be derided because there are so many different kinds of them, but they have a lineage to respected rugs such as Bijars and Sennehs which gives them legitimacy and value. Baluch rugs, on the other hand, never had such cachet. In dealer terms, they were loss leaders; they were the rugs you gave away as a bonus to someone who bought a more expensive rug.

Baluch rugs didn't cost anyone very much money. Therefore, they were not something to be cared for, considered beautiful, or believed to promise any kind of value in the future.

In the 1960s and through most of the 1970s, Baluch rugs did not experience the rapidly increasing values which occurred with Caucasian, Turkoman, South Persian, and other nomadic rugs. Most people looked on them as rather dark little rugs with not very sparkling colors.

In 1974, the International Hajji Baba Society, Inc. staged an exhibition of Baluch rugs for its annual Christmas soiree. The catalog written by H. McCoy Jones and Jeff Boucher was a first, and a significant, first. It contained 64 pieces of Baluch weaving from the well-known prayer rugs and floor rugs to the rare kilims, bags, and animal trappings. It is perhaps indicative of the times that Jones and Boucher traveled to Iran and Afghanistan to acquire many of these pieces because they were not readily available in the U.S. marketplace. They also went to learn more about where they were woven, by whom, and any other data because most books offered so little information about them.

Despite this effort, Baluch rugs still did not attract a wide audience, but an indication that this exhibit resulted in a quiet awareness is that it was one of the first of the Hajji Baba catalogs to go out of print. By 1978 and 1979 Baluch rug prices began to move up at the auctions. John Edelmann was a major auctioneer of Baluch rugs and, at his November 10, 1979 auction, he sold a Baluch prayer rug for $1,900 and a Baluch Torba for $2,000. These were pretty hefty prices in those days. It looked like Baluch rugs had arrived.

No. 10, Kurd/Baluch prayer rug

The big event in this progression came on October 25, 1980, with his auction at the conclusion of the III International Conference on Oriental Carpets in Washington, D.C. This sale featured 426 rugs of which 34 were Baluchs. At the end of what was one of the most exciting rug sales ever, 13 of the Baluch items had sold for $1,500 or more. The most offered was $3,600 for a rug with a field patterned with Tekke kurbage guls. An exceptional classic Baluch flatweave kilim brought $3,500. (The highest price paid for a Baluch had occurred at Edelmann's April 15, 1980, sale when a beige field tree of life prayer rug brought $3,800.) As things turned out, this was the high-water mark for Baluch rugs. On April 15, 1981, Sotheby's held a sale with 555 rugs, exceptionally successful, but only four Baluch rugs reached the $1,500 level. Following (Richard) Markarian's Law, rug auctions and rug sales in general declined with the return of the Republicans to Washington, and Baluchs seemed to suffer a drop greater than other rug groups. It is doubtful if half of the $1,500-plus lots in Edelmann's sale would go over that amount today.

To determine what today's auction market is like, we asked several of the major auction houses - Christie's, Robert W. Skinner, Sotheby's, and Butterfield & Butterfield - to provide us with a list of the Baluch rugs which had sold for over $1,500 in the past five years. In making this request, we bet ourselves that none of the houses had sold more than 13 in the past five years, e.g., top the October 25, 1980 sale total of Edelmann's. While we don't consider the bet lost, we were surprised that Sotheby's matched that number.

Before providing for your edification those lists and the specific rugs which are bringing the top dollar at auction, it should be noted that Christie's had no rugs at this level in 1985 and 1986, and Skinner and Sotheby's had none in 1985. It seems 1985 was the bottom and only in 1986 did a recovery begin. But it is only in 1988 that one begins to see multiples of sales at this level in a single auction at the major houses. The one Butterfield & Butterfield price is an aberration and was offered in their "European Collector" (acknowledged Bausback) sale of that year. With their revitalized rug auction department, we expect to see more significant Baluch sales from them.

Prices quoted are hammer and do not include the 10% buyer's premium.

$4,750 1. Yacub Khani variant main carpet 9'7"x6'4", Lot 82, Sotheby's, 12/13/86 est. $1,400-1,800

$4,750 2. Dokhtar-i-Ghazi prayer rug 4'5"x3'9", Lot 116, Skinner, 6/5/88 est. $5,000-7,000

$4,500 3. Tree of Life, camel field, prayer rug 5'x2'7", Lot 99, Christie's, 6/7/88 est. $5,000-7,000

$4,500 4. Mina Khani rug, 7'8"x4'4", Lot 73, Sotheby's 6/4/88 est. $4,000-5,000

$4,000 5. Tree of Life, camel field, prayer rug 5'x2'9", Lot 57, Sotheby's, 12/13/86 est. $2,000-3,000

$4,000 6. Mina Khani variant rug 3'8"x3'7", Lot 43, Butterfield & Butterfield, 4/10/87, est. $4,000-5,000

$3.000 7. Kurd-Baluch rug 4'6"x3'1", Lot 105, Skinner, 12/6/87 est. $1,500-2,000

$2,900 8. Mina Khani rug 5'9"x3'5", Lot 24, Sotheby's 5/30/87 est. $2,000-3,000

$2,800 9. Yacub Khani main carpet 8'6"x6'2", Lot 75, Christie's 4/9/88 est. $2,500-3,500

$2,800 10. Kurd-Baluch prayer rug 4'1"x2'8", Lot 136, Skinner, 12/16/86 est. $500-700

$2,600 11. Yacub Khani main carpet 10'9"x6' Lot 88, Christie's, 6/7/88 est. $2,000-3,000

$2,300 12. Tree of Life, camel field, prayer rug 4'x2'6", Lot 124, Sotheby's, 12/13/86 est. $1,200-1,800

$2,250 13. Mina Khani variant rug 8'4"x6', Lot 86, Sotheby's 12/1/84 est. $1,800-2,200

$2,200 14. Variant camel field rug 4'7"x2'10", Lot 108, Sotheby's 12/1/84 est. $2,000-2,500

$2,100 15. Cane design rug 4'7"x2'10", Lot 93, Sotheby's 12/13/86 est. $1,000-1,500

$1,900 16. Variant geometric prayer rug 4'1"x2'6", Lot 5 Christie's, 5/22/84 est. $2,400-2,800

$1,900 17. Diamond trellis rug 8'x5', Lot 64, Skinner, 11/29/84 est. $1,500-1,800

$1,850 18. Tree of Life, camel field rug 5'9"x3'2", Lot 99, Skinner, 5/31/87 est. $2,000-2,500

$1,800 19. Diagonal Memling gul rug 5'8"x3'8", Lot 130, Skinner, 6/3/86 est. $2,000-2,500

$1,800 20. Birds, camel field rug 3'9"x2'6", Lot 116, Sotheby's 5/30/87 est. $2,500-3,000

$1,800 21. Tree of Life, camel field prayer rug 4'7"x2'10", Lot 63, Sotheby's, 12/31/86 est. $1,500- 2,000

$1,700 22. Tree of Life, camel field prayer rug 4'5"x2'9", Lot 100, Skinner, 6/5/88 est. $1,000-1,500

$1,600 23. Mina Khani rug 7'6"x4'6", Lot 21, Sotheby's 11/5/83 est. $2,000-2,500

$1,600 24. Memling gul, ivory field rug 3'11 "x2'8", Lot 16, Sotheby's, 4/30/83 est. $2,000-2,500

$1,600 25. Mina Khani rug 7'7"x3'7", Lot 52, Christie's, 12/8/87 est. $1,500-2,000

$1,500 26. Birds, brick field rug 3'7"x2'5", Lot 33 Sotheby's, 11/5/83 est. $800-1,200

The purpose of this exercise is to elicit information on a variety of matters. First, which types of rugs bring the top prices? Second, are there new trends in certain types which are becoming popular? Third, are there aspects which do not show up in lists like this? Finally, are there any messages here for the future?

No. 19, Diagonal Memling gul rug

Although the pieces in this survey are not quantitatively large enough in and of themselves to validate trends, they do confirm aspects of conventional wisdom about the auction scene. With respect to those types of Baluch rugs which are most desired, we can observe the following:

1. The perennial and quintessential Baluch rug is the Tree of Life, camel field, prayer rug. There are probably more of this specific type woven by Baluch weavers than any other. There are six on this list. But not every rug of this type brings a high figure. Because there are so many, those that achieve high figures have very special features which set them apart - spacious drawing, fine weave, exceptional wool quality, dyes, kilim ends, and usually some special presence which is subjective and ephemeral.

2. The second consistently desired type is that with the Mina Khani pattern, and there are six of these on the list. Typically, these rugs have dark blue fields and are the origin of the old dealer term of "Blue Bokharas." They frequently are larger than most small Baluch rugs, have a dense weave, may be woven with both Persian and Turkish knots, have highly lustrous wool, finely finished kilims, and an effective use of white within the overall design concept. The ones which bring top auction prices are almost always from the Iranian side of the border. What are believed to be the oldest Baluch rugs (see Thompson's Carpet Magic, page 49) are related to this group.

3. There are several groups of Baluch rugs which may be called unusual, rare, atypical, or odd but which are sought for exactly those features. Most prominent of these would be

a) rugs with ivory, beige,\or light camel color grounds;
b) rugs with certain types' of Tekke Turkoman patterns, typically the kurbage secondary gul or the star octagon border pattern;
c) rugs with a field covered with birds of which there are two varieties;
d) rugs with botehs on the field which most commonly have light colored fields;
e) the second most typical type of Baluch with two shades of red plus blues with a lattice design containing a geometric "gul";
f) rugs with a cane pattern of vertical stripes with some type of floral patterning; and g) rugs with unusual patterns or colorations which are atypical of Baluch rugs.

These rugs have been most appealing to that rare group of aesthetes who have been collecting Baluch rugs for the past 10 years. The surprising aspects of the list above are the prices labeled with specific names as Yacub Khani and Dokhtar-i-Ghazi. This is very recent. In the past such rugs have been overlooked and bought-in in many auctions, but recently astute collectors have not allowed this to happen. This would seem to indicate that turn of the century rugs are receiving more attention. Collectors who want tribal affiliation names will likely demand such specific attributions. It should be noted that the first and second places in the listing are held by such rugs.

No. 6, Mina Khani variant rug

What is not obvious or apparent in these lists? There are two Kurd-Baluch rugs in the list; this indicates that rugs with higher color are gaining in appeal. These are not high on the scale but their presence would indicate that there are probably many just below our $1,500 limit.

Second, there are no bag faces on this list. Bag faces are one of the prime Baluch collecting groups; their absence is more an indication of our price limit than of their lack of popularity. A separate survey of this particular item would be necessary to show the relationship of various designs, weaves, wools, and dyes of this group.

Third, there are no examples within the survey period of certain specific types which might be expected to achieve auction results above our stated level. For example, in Jones/Boucher Baluch Rugs, Plate 15 represents a particularly rare type of Baluch weaving with cochineal red in the palette. It has elements of extremely old Turkoman designs. These pieces can always be expected to bring high prices.

What can be anticipated for the future? Authentic tribal weavings are becoming more and more scarce with every passing day. Some have become exceptionally pricey, such as the Turkomans and Caucasians. Others, such as Kurds, minor Central Asian tribal peoples, and Baluchs, are still undervalued.