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Paiva, Roland and Dupaigne Bernard

Afghan Embroidery

Hardback in dw, by Ferozons Lahore Pakistan 1996. Illustrated throughout with photos. 131 pages with 26 pages of script and two maps. In stock buy now one copy left!
£35

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Published by Ferorzesons (Pvt.) LTD., Lahore- Rawalpindi-Karachi in 1993, (ISBN 969 0 10143 9). The quality of the colour photos is exceptionally good, but you will have a basis for forming your own opinion below.
It is an oversize format with 17 pages of introductory text followed by full colour photos of 135 items of Afghan embroidery. Most of the pieces in this volume are estimated to have been made between 1920 and 1980.
The text is a little flowery and romantic, but provides useful information.

No technical information is provided for the individual pieces. Instead the written text summarizes the various stitches used in Afghan embroidery and provides drawings of each of them. Here is a listing of the stitches used:

There is also a description of who the Afghan embroiderers are by geographic area, ethnic group. Let me begin by summarizing what is said about this last point.
East: Pashtun, settled and nomad, Ghilzay nomads are mentioned by name.
South: Tajiks and Pashtuns.
West: Baluch
Centre: Hazaras (the centre is a large, diverse area open to multiple influences)
North: Tajiks and Uzbeks (Turkmen in Afghanistan are said not as noted for their embroidery as are those on the Russian side. “Chyrpys” are mentioned but none is shown, suggesting that these are mostly products of the Russian Turkmen.)
Now to the embroideries themselves. I will give the images and the information provided for each of them, but will frequently have little else to say. Others may be able to elaborate.

Pashtun nomad, Katawaz (Ghazni), 1960

No dimensions are provided in this book and this is the kind of piece about which this is inconvenient, since the facing page presents four bags with the same shape but describes them as “make up bags,” making me wonder if this distinction suggests that this one is larger.

The palette of embroidered piece is distinctive and it is clear that if one collects such things, one dare not be entirely allergic to synthetic dyes. Whatever those in this piece may be, I still find them attractive.

A second item of clothing is a man’s jacket. Also described as Pashtun Mangal, Paktya, 1930.

This is a word that I thought I had seen before, but could not retrieve its meaning from memory. A little search revealed, what some of you undoubted know, that the puttee is a covering of the lower leg from the ankle to about the knee. The puttee was adopted by British Troops from people who wore them in India and Afghanistan. Military puttees were apparently often strips of cloth that were wrapped around this area of the leg. One reference suggested the purpose was to protect the leg but also to keep stones from getting into one’s boots. Just to let you see that they seem to have been recently made and worn, here are two more pairs of them in the image below.

The two pairs of puttees on the left of this image are Uzbek, Andkhoy, 1960.
The shorter item on the right is also Uzbek, but is a man’s wrist band, Sar-i-Pul, 1965.

The piece below is one of those that make one wish for more information on size.

It might be conjectured that this piece would be a couple of feet square but it is described as a “Make-up bag,” Hazara, Jaghori (Ghazni), 1950. Likely a simpler design to embroider but a wonderfully rich result for me.

Here are two items that have more familiar shapes to many of us.

They are both described as “Door hanging ornament, used in yurt, Lakai Uzbek, Kunduz, 1930.” I quite like how they demonstrate that both brighter and darker palettes can be effective.

Here I want again to put up the image on the front cover of this book.

Hats seem to be the format most exposed now to commercial pressures and many, many are made explicitly for sale. Still styles seem to be maintained and the authors say that a member of a given ethnic group in Afghanistan would not wear the cap of another ethnic group. This is one of the older items in this book. It is described as a “Child’s cap, Uzbek, Balkh, 1920. It seems to me a very worthy item indeed. I would collect it in a minute.

The first is this rather dramatically-shaped woman’s cap.

It is attributed to Turkmen Yomut, Herat, 1940.

Here is another cap below, this time for a woman.

It is described as Uzbek (Tashkent tradition), Mazar-i-Sharif (Balkh), 1930.

The format below was new to me, but not a surprise once named.

That authors call this a “Coiffe,” a hair covering, perhaps worn under a veil. This one is attributed to the Uzbeks of Andkhoy, 1930.

The last two items are a kind of puzzle, they are both Yomut Turkman. I don’t think that it is generally held that there are noticeable numbers of Yomuts in Afghanistan but these two pieces are here in a book about Afghan embroidery.

The second Yomut item is this purse. Also attributed to the Turkmen Yomut, Herat, 1930.

So that is what I can show your from this nice book on Afghan embroidery. Please feel free to buy this wonderful book in good condition if you want to see more photos.
Price £35

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