This is a main carpet from the Tekke Turkman tribe probably woven between 1850 -1880  and for family use. At this period the Tekke were the most powerful of the nomadic Turkman tribes based in Turkmenistan migrating annually from the Amu Darya Valley to the mountains close by. The is an exceptionally fine piece of which the Metropolitan Museum in New York has a similar one.
The carpet in a deep madder red is identifiable by its gol as Tekke. (Each Turkman tribe had a signature gol which could be stylised in different ways). The gol here is in a quartered rounded octagonal form with a central cruciform or stepped diamond element. It is organised in a grid with the deep saturated red ground offset by a characteristic white in each main gol. The gilim (flat woven) ends and the broad intensively decorated border are both distinctively Tekke. The detailing in the borders in particular echoes the octagonal or circular medallions representing celestial bodies or stylised flowers found in suzanis or ikats of the same period.