Yomud Turkmen Chuval, ca. 1860
GUEST:
My father bought this at an estate auction probably in the 1940s. It's been in my family since I was a little girl. He had a college classmate that was an Armenian, dealt in Oriental rugs in Connecticut. And he told us this was a Bokhara saddle bag.
APPRAISER:
Okay.
GUEST:
That's as much as I can tell you.
APPRAISER:
Okay, do you have any idea what he paid for it when he bought it?
GUEST:
Probably not very much.
APPRAISER:
Okay.
GUEST:
He was very good at picking out things that didn't cost much, bringing them home and then trying to figure out what to do with them.
APPRAISER:
Right, that's fantastic. Well, the information you know about it is somewhat true.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
It's actually from Turkmenistan, it's a Turkmen storage bag. It's not really a saddle bag. It was woven by a Turkmen subgroup known as the Yomuds. They're a semi-nomadic tribe, and they roamed to what is today Turkmenistan, eastern Iran, Afghanistan, those regions really in the Central Asian plains. I think it was woven between 1850 and 1875. And being semi-nomadic people, the Yomuds lived in yurts, which are tents.
GUEST:
Right, right.
APPRAISER:
And so this would have originally had a back attached to the reverse side of it, and they would have hung it on the wall of the yurt and used it for storage when they were in residence in the yurt in a particular area.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
And it's a really good example. It's got wonderful color, it's a wonderful design. I think one of the interesting things about Turkmen weaving-- be it Yomud or any of the other tribes-- is their rugs are incredibly finely woven. These were nomadic people working with very primitive materials, but the rugs always have a very, very fine knot count. I didn't count this rug, but I'd imagine it's probably about 300 knots per square inch, which is quite fine.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
They weave with very fine wool and it's wool on wool. It's wool knots tied to a wool foundation. And at this period, all of the dye stuffs would have been natural, would have been either vegetable dyes or mineral dyes or insect dyes. And these chuvals always have this sort of design where they have the main body of the field and then they have this panel here that's called an elem panel. And that was just to indicate when it was hanging that it made sense designwise for its use. It would hang and it had a base and then a main part of the body.
GUEST:
I always wondered if there was another piece that went up there that was missing.
APPRAISER:
No, no.
GUEST:
This is actually... It was made this way?
APPRAISER:
Absolutely, it's fairly complete. What's missing is originally it would have been woven further down here and then it would have been folded up and sewn on the back to form the bag.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
For something that's this old, it's maintained in remarkably good condition. The market for Turkmen pieces is a little weak at the moment. And I would put a value on this at auction of between $5,000 and $7,000.
GUEST:
Dollars?
APPRAISER:
Yeah, dollars.
GUEST:
Whoa.
APPRAISER:
It's a really good piece, it's a nice thing.
GUEST:
My goodness, I had no idea.
APPRAISER:
Yeah, yeah, it's great.
GUEST:
I was thinking $200 at the best.
APPRAISER:
No, no, it's much, much better than that.
GUEST:
Wow, I'm impressed.
Appraisal Details
Executive producer Marsha Bemko shares her tips for getting the most out of ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.
Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."
Note the date: Take note of the date the appraisal was recorded. This information appears in the upper left corner of the page, with the label "Appraised On." Values change over time according to market forces, so the current value of the item could be higher, lower, or the same as when our expert first appraised it.
Context is key: Listen carefully. Most of our experts will give appraisal values in context. For example, you'll often hear them say what an item is worth "at auction," or "retail," or "for insurance purposes" (replacement value). Retail prices are different from wholesale prices. Often an auctioneer will talk about what she knows best: the auction market. A shop owner will usually talk about what he knows best: the retail price he'd place on the object in his shop. And though there are no hard and fast rules, an object's auction price can often be half its retail value; yet for other objects, an auction price could be higher than retail. As a rule, however, retail and insurance/replacement values are about the same.
Verbal approximations: The values given by the experts on ANTIQUES ROADSHOW are considered "verbal approximations of value." Technically, an "appraisal" is a legal document, generally for insurance purposes, written by a qualified expert and paid for by the owner of the item. An appraisal usually involves an extensive amount of research to establish authenticity, provenance, composition, method of construction, and other important attributes of a particular object.
Opinion of value: As with all appraisals, the verbal approximations of value given at ROADSHOW events are our experts' opinions formed from their knowledge of antiques and collectibles, market trends, and other factors. Although our valuations are based on research and experience, opinions can, and sometimes do, vary among experts.
Appraiser affiliations: Finally, the affiliation of the appraiser may have changed since the appraisal was recorded. To see current contact information for an appraiser in the ROADSHOW Archive, click on the link below the appraiser's picture. Our Appraiser Index also contains a complete list of active ROADSHOW appraisers and their contact details and biographies.