Oriental rugs come in a limitless array of patterns and colors, with great variations even within each of the six major regions of the Middle East and Asia best known for rug making (Persia, Turkey, Caucasus, China, India). Yet the traditional rugs of these areas bear certain characteristics that can make their place of origin recognizable even to the novice eye.
Oriental rugs are typically named after the city or village in which they were made, or the nomadic tribe of origin.
History and Development
Rug-making almost certainly began with the nomads of Asia, who remain great masters of the art today. Once these people had become shepherds, the advantages of using wool for covers and clothing must have been obvious. The flocks provided reliable regular supplies, so the shepherd could keep warm in the harsh Asiatic winters, when earth floors might be frozen hard. Everything necessary for making rugs was readily available to be utilized by the most restless of tribes. Looms for weaving and knotting could be made with little more than two parallel sticks pegged to the ground; wool could be used for both the weaving and the knotting; and there were abundant wild-growing plants that yielded dyestuffs, making it possible to transform the rug's appearance through varied color. So it was, and so it still is. The nomadic tribes of Persia, the Caucasus and Central Asia still use the same techniques and materials to make age-old designs. They provide a direct link with the earliest history - or rather the prehistory - of the art.
No Persian rugs made before 1500AD are documented in European paintings, and no surviving specimens can confidently be attributed to the period before the Sefavid dynasty, which was established in 1501. Nevertheless, we are on safe ground in assuming the technique of pile carpet knotting dates back many centuries in Persia, if not several millennia.
It is also clear that there are only four broad areas in Sefavid Persia where centers of weaving could have been found: the northwest around Tabriz; the southeast around Kerman; central Persia around Isfahan and Kashan; and in the east, the province of Khurassan, with Herat, and somewhat later Mashad, being the probable focus.
The Art of Oriental Rug Making
Wool Shearing, Carding & Dying
The process begins by shearing wool from only the finest sheep. It is then washed in hot water and degreased, sometimes using soap, after which it is put in a bath for twelve hours. It is then carded (brushed with wire), to straighten the fibers, then spun. Next it is dyed in giant boiling vats as many as twenty times by master dyers, then dried in the sun. Each piece of the process is an art in itself.
Rug Designs
Rug designs are inspired by the weaver’s surroundings, as well as legends. Rugs are usually described in the trade as either geometric or floral, but this is misleading, as even most geometric rugs involve stylized floral forms.
In areas using long-established local designs, the weavers often work from memory, with the patterns passed down generations. This is usually sufficient for rectilinear designs, particularly for those with a low knot density, but for the more elaborate curvilinear design of Persian city rugs, the patterns are carefully drawn to scale in the proper colors on graph paper called a cartoon. This allows for an accurate rendition of even the most complex designs. Particularly in larger towns and cities, the designer has become as much a specialist as the dyer, and in some areas, such as Kerman, he has traditionally been accorded considerable respect. The finely woven Persian floral rugs are now designed by these professionals, who must keep current on market demands and at the same time maintain continuity with the past.
Weaving
The weaver then begins the painstaking job that will take months maybe even years to complete. The weaver builds the rug from thousands, oftentimes millions of individually tied knots made with the help of a loom.
The loom on which the weaving and knotting are done has remained largely unchanged over the centuries. It is basically a wooden frame across which yarn can be stretched from beam to beam. The most primitive forms are the nomadic or horizontal designed with easy portability in mind. The nomad works with the loom flat on the ground in front of him with no side supports. The village or workshop craftsman sits with the loom upright and facing him (vertical loom). The working method is essentially the same in both cases consisting of two vertical beams that span the rug's width, called the "warp" threads.
The warp threads are usually made of cotton or wool yarns, which are tightly stretched along the length of the loom. In a pile rug, pieces of differently colored wool yarn are nimbly knotted around each pair of warp threads. As each row of knots is completed, weft threads, usually cotton, are inserted across the width of the loom and a new row is begun. The weft and the warp make up the hidden foundation of the rug and the knots create the pile and the pattern. Typically there are two kinds of knots - the Persian and the Turkish. But these labels may be misleading, as many Persian rugs are woven with Turkish knots.
An average weaver can tie between ten and fourteen thousand knots in a day. Two weavers can complete an 8' x 10' rug of 250 knots per square inch (KPSI) in approximately five to six months.
After several rows of knots have been tied, a metal comb is used to beat and compress the knots. Weaving threads produce an irregular pile, which is then trimmed evenly with scissors. After the weaving is complete, the rug is cut from the loom and the extra threads remain unknotted to form the fringe.
Finally, the rug is washed, dried in the sun and sheared again to even out the pile. Then it is ready to ship.
Types of Persian Rugs (Iran)
For centuries, Persians have been masters of design. Their fantastic designs, the cleverly intermixed colors, the incomparable feeling for the arabesque, are all the expression of a people whose decorative instinct burst forth involuntarily. We can recognize a Persian carpet by the great freedom of form, its construction and decorative imagination. From this spring the innumerable variations of floral motifs, shields of foliage, palmettes, skillful arabesques, garlands, fantastic or legendary animals, and figures of all kinds, treated generally in a figurative manner and with great difficulty contained within the architectural limits of the scheme.
The color scheme is in a low harmonious key enriched with pure tones. The shaded pinks and greens are heightened by an ultramarine, or the deep reds by orange and beige.
Oriental rugs are named after their city, village or nomadic tribe of origin.
We begin with Kashan, historically probably the most important area for rug making; then Tabriz, also an important weaving center, then from the northwest moving down the continent to Heriz, Serapi, Bidjar, Hamadan, Kerman, Sarouk, Gabbeh & Kashkouli.
Kashan (central Persia)
Perhaps the most important area is central Persia, where historical references establish that carpets were woven in Kashan at least from the late sixteenth century. Quite possibly such rugs as the great Vienna Hunting Carpet (1,000 knots per square inch - KPSI) were woven there. Kashan-wares are still among the finest quality and best-known of all Oriental carpets.
Design: They all have similar patterns - a single medallion in the center and Persian floral motifs, including arabesques and flower-stems, palmettos, rosettes blossom and leaf motifs, forming one of the densest patterns.
Color: The dominant colors for these area rugs are red, blue and cream.
Texture: Kashan has long been associated with carpets of silk pile - a material more commonly used for the warp and weft in other weaving centers, even to the present. Woolen Kashan carpets have a warmer, richer look than those made of silk, and the wool used has always been notably soft and lustrous. The Persian knots are fine to exceptionally fine (120-842 KPSI). The pile is left fairly long, though it was clipped short until the last few decades.
Tabriz (Northwestern, Persia)
Tabriz has also long been described as an important weaving center. Some scholars see this area as by far the most significant. The traditional attribution of a large class of Sefavid rugs, mostly in medallion designs, to Tabriz may be accurate. Tabriz and its surrounding areas of Heriz, Haradja, and Serab sparked the commercial large-scale export of rugs. Although they have not been woven since before World War I, old Tabriz silk rugs may still be encountered in the trade and they have recently been selling for enormous sums.
Design: The Tabriz carpet may appear in virtually any shape or pattern. Medallion design may well have been used in Tabriz carpets of Sefavid times and they are still found in many forms. A number of diverse design elements have found their way into Tabriz rugs. They are precisely drawn and executed with care, and perhaps this has led to the charge that these rugs often have a stiff appearance. Tabriz medallion rugs often resemble those of Kerman and Kashan, but they are easily distinguished by their use of Turkish knots.
Color: There is not a traditional color scheme, as in Kerman or Kashan, and the weavers make what the market demands at any particular time. The best synthetic dyes have been used with great skill in Tabriz, but the poorest-grade Tabriz carpet may be made of skin wool colored with harsh aniline dyes and woven with yarn too thin to provide good weaving qualities.
Texture: The Tabriz carpet traditionally have been a double-wefted fabric on a cotton foundation, with Turkish knots and a pile of rather harsh wool from the Maku district of the extreme northwestern part of Persia. The quality of Tabriz rugs depends on the number of knots, which varies from 120 up to 842 KPSI. The pile is relatively short, and the carpet is not known to be particularly durable.
Heriz (Northwestern, Persia)
About forty miles east of Tabriz lies a group of about thirty villages and towns, the largest and most important of which is Heriz. Heriz rugs are the most famous Persian rugs among collectors. Almost all rugs of the Heriz area are in larger sizes, with scatter rugs relatively rare.
Design: Patterns were and are of the floral type, but translated into near-geometry by the exclusive use of straight lines; examples include medallion designs and 'all-overs' (with a repeat pattern in the main field instead of medallions and corner pieces), most commonly with a rich red ground. The typical Heriz carpet has a medallion design that has changed little over many decades, repeating patterns are less common. The finer rugs particularly show a practice best described as "double outlining" which occurs less frequently in other areas. Here the design elements are separated from the field, not by a single line in contrasting color, but by two lines in different colors. This produces the characteristic crispness of the best Heriz designs. A group of fine and extremely pliable silk rugs are described as having originated in the Heriz district, and in many respects they resemble the turn-of-the century silk rugs of Tabriz.
Color: Light red, brown and sky blue. Brown, beige and turquoise shades indicate older pieces.
Texture: Most Heriz rugs are made with large knots. Knotting can be as coarse as 30 KPSI, while the finer specimens seldom exceed 80 (medium fine). The pile is long and heavy of high quality wool, and the edges have a thick double selvage, thus Heriz rugs are very durable. All Heriz rugs are Turkish knotted.
Serapi
The name Serapi is often applied to the finest carpets of the Heriz area. Old antique Heriz carpets called Serapi are very valuable and there are many buyers all around the world for antique Serapi rugs. This name derives from Serab, although most of the rugs probably did not originate there. Serapi rugs have primitive elegant single lines and are typically over 100 years old.
Kurdish Rugs
Rugs are made in Kurdistan by both nomads and peasants with geometric patterns or rather crude stylized floral designs. The piles are long , uneven and curly, but the quality of the wool is often superb, and the colors always made with natural dyes, glow with a dark rich sheen. Kurds also form a majority of the craftsmen in the workshops in the two main towns, Bijar and Senneh, where rather more sophisticated carpets are made.
Bidjar (Kurdestan, Iran)
Bidjars are among the most expensive new Iranian rugs.
Design: The Bidjar differs in the great number of patterns employed, as few other types of Persian rugs have used so many designs. A Bidjar could seldom be identified from design alone, as many of the same patterns could be from Hamadan or Kurdish villages over a wide area.
Color: Dyes produced in the older rugs produced exquisite natural colors with strong light and dark blue and often rather pale reds.
Texture: Only around Bidjar, however, is the texture so heavy and inflexible. The rugs of Bidjar and the surrounding villages are quite unmistakable, being thicker and denser than any others. One encounters few new Bidjars, and those that are found are an entirely different type of rug with a cotton foundation and a weave that may reach 400 KPSI -the most dense of rugs (extremely, extremely fine). The Bidjar is among the hardest-wearing rugs known. It is noted as being perhaps the stiffest carpet made, although the pile is not thicker than that in many other types. The difference is the degree to which the elements are packed together. The weft strands are literally compressed by long nail-like strips of metal, which are inserted between the warps and pounded with a hammer. The warp is always of wool in older rugs, although in the new Bidgars it is more likely to be cotton, and there are three wefts, one of which is much thicker than the others. Bidgars are always Turkish knotted.
Hamadan (Kurdestan, Iran)
As a weaving center, Hamaden is without equal in the sheer bulk of its output, although the weaving originates mostly in the district's six hundred villages. Probably more Persian rugs of this type have been imported into the US than those from any other two areas combined, and for decades over three-quarters of the scatter sizes were from Hamadan, as well as most of the long runners and perhaps one-quarter of the larger carpets.
Design: Carpets made in HAMEDEN usually have geometric patterns. HAMEDEN village rugs all have a single-wefted medallion.
Color: Dark red and powerful blue predominate, with ivory as a contrasting color. Other colors such as soft green, blue and brown are found in newer carpets.
Texture: The earliest surviving generation of Hamadans have a wool foundation, but the newer rugs warps and wefts are invariably of white cotton, and the knotting always Turkish. The weight may approach that of a Bidjar, although much of it comes from the long pile rather than the closely packed body of the rug. Most of these have been of low to medium quality, with only a small number of really fine fabrics, but there is a toughness about these rugs that has made them justly desired.
Kerman (Southeastern, Iran)
Carpets from KERMAN have been appreciated by western collectors for many years. Even superficial examination of the late nineteenth century Kerman rugs gives one the impression that they have something in common with the Sefavid rugs usually referred to as "vase" carpets, which feature large, elaborate blossoms arranged in a complex lattice across the field. Not only does the range of colors appear identical, but the wool, a distinctive soft variety with particularly good whites, seems like no other found in Persia.
Design: They are particularly famous for having a single medallion with an arabesque form called ESKI-KERMAN. There are, however, many different designs in Kerman carpets and rugs. Another common famous design is the "Tree of Life."
Color: The reds and blues in KERMAN rugs and carpets are lighter in comparison with carpets and rugs made in other cities in IRAN.
Texture: Wool; thin, very well textured pile. Rugs and Carpets from Kerman have very tight foundations and the knots are Persian. The quality of the carpet depends upon the number of knots, which varies, but averages from around 120 up to 842 KPSI.
Sarouk (a village around 50 km north of Arak, in central Iran)
Sarouk (SARUQ) rugs are of excellent quality. Antique (1900) Sarouk rugs and carpets are of extremely high quality and are being collected by museums and private collectors. After WWII, the quality Sarouk rugs and carpets dropped for a brief period. Now carpets some of which are of the very highest quality are being exported all over the world, and especially to Europe and America. Sarouk rugs are very famous, however, it is not easy to determine true Sarouks from those of neighboring villages and cities.
Design: Sarouk rugs are characterized by both curvilinear and geometric patterns and come in both traditional and American styles. The traditional designs consist of Herati, boteh, or gul hannai motifs in either an all-over or medallion layout. The medallion layout could have a hexagonal, oval, diamond, round, or angular floral shape. The most interesting traditional design is a medallion-and-corner layout which consists of geometric yet very naturalistic floral motifs. The border may have three to five border stripes (or patterns).
Color: The main colors used in the traditional designs are red, blue, burnt orange, ocher, and champagne. The main colors used in American Sarouk rugs are rich reds and blues. Sometimes the motifs are outlined with a lighter red, light yellow, or turquoise to create contrast between the background and the motifs, especially in the case of open field designs. An intense salmon pink called dughi pink is typical of American Saruks; this color is obtained by adding yogurt or curdled milk to the dye mixture. Other colors such as soft green, blue, and brown are found in newer carpets.
Texture: New Sarouk rugs are made from excellent wool, cut medium high to high. Older pieces are often hard, woven in lustrous top quality wool, Kork (baby lamb's wool) and cut very short to short. Inspection of the back of the carpet is important because the weavers in Sarouk use Persian knots. In antique Sarouk rugs and carpets, you can also find Turkish knots. The quality of the carpet depends upon the number of knots, which varies, but usually averages from around 120 to 475 KPSI (fine).
Gabbeh & Kashkouli (Southwestern Iran, made by tribal people such as Qashqai, near Shiraz)
Gabbeh was getting very popular in the 80's in Europe and now since the lifting of embargo, you find them in the U.S. market also. The majority of Gabbehs & Kashkoulis have a simple plain format with one or two small animals on their pattern. The world Gabbeh means "unclipped". Gabbeh distinct style of weaving is especially suitable for modern, or contemporary settings.
Design: Gabbeh/Kashkouli rugs have an extremely simple geometric pattern. Some newer rugs have more details such as birds, and human in the pattern.
Color: Plain khaki, soft green, light blue are the predominate colors. You can find other newer colors such as red and yellow or ivory.
Texture: Very thick, heavy, soft wool, lose piles. Wefts are wool, with wool, cotton or silk warp. Gabbehs are usually flat-woven.