Antique rugs: Persian rugs
These antique persian rugs, with their bright colors and magical designs add more than simple warmth and comfort to your home
Antique or persian rugs add charm to your home and add texture to beautiful ceramic tile and wood floors. Many are used as a wall hanging or tapestry.
We have chosen just to show you three different styles of antique rugs. These show you the intricate patterns and weaves that make up these antique rugs. The cost for these very old rugs, ranges from over $1500 dollars to our sale items as low as $469 dollars (these are a very good buy and will hold their value over the years).
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Generally, antique rugs are classified by the region in which they are made. For example, a rug would be identified in the market as a Tabriz if it was woven in or near the city of the same name. A major Persian rug center such as Tabriz also have subcategories, such as the famous Tabriz Mahi.
They are:
Bakhtiara rug
Bakhtiari people are a noble, ancient tribe surviving in the Chahar Mahal region of south-central Iran. Primitive Bakhtiari rugs frequently have a checkerboard or garden pattern decorated with trees-of-life, birds, flowers and animals, sometimes realistic, sometimes abstract.
Hamadan rug
Situated in west-central Iran, Hamadan is perhaps one of the largest centers for the trade of tribal rugs. The patterns in Hamadans vary from primitive geometrics to floral or overall Herati designs. Colors can also vary widely, from red, green and blue, to beige, rust, yellow and salmon.
Saveh rug
Saveh is a small town located in north-western Iran and is one of the places that the Shahsavan tribes reside and market their rugs. Saveh rugs always have geometric patterns with a burgundy diamond central medallion extending from top to bottom, placed in a lighter beige field. Sizes are usually smaller and long runners.
In recent years Kashan rugs have become more popular, with many new compositions that have been crafted with more modern artistic designs. Simple geometric patterns, almost hidden within the weave, with muted accents, soft shades and earth tones are the main visual characteristics. They are the finest hand spun wool area rugs.
Short history review
The most rare rugs today are antique Persian rugs. Very few have remained in Iran as Europeans have bought most of these pieces. It's rare to find a very old rug for sale, but you can still admire their beauty in museums around the world. There are collectors that travel the world looking for antique rugs from Persia and the orient, they keep these in their private collections.
One of the most famous old antique Persian rugs was the 'Spring Carpet of Chosroes', found in the palace of Chosroes II at Ctesiphon when his Persian army was defeated by the Byzantine Emperor Heraklius.
According to legend, when the Persian King Chosroes I defeated the Romans in the conquest of southern Arabia this rug was woven to commemorate the event. The rug was described as weighing several tons and measuring several hundred feet in length and width. It had pure gold and silver threads and was inlaid with precious gems, rubies, diamonds, and pearls. When the Arabs conquered Persia, this rug was so big that they had to rip it into pieces in order to get at the precious jewels, some of which still exist today in museums around the world.
Safavid Weaving
Except for the 2500-year-old Pazyryk Rug and a few other fragments found in Asia, almost all antique rugs that still exist are from the Safavid dynasty. In 1499, the Safavids began their conquest of Iran which lasted from 1501-1722..
This period was the golden age of Persian art, and carpet weaving was perhaps the greatest of the art forms. The Safavid rulers established several royal factories in Persia for the manufacture of various types of woven materials. The major ones in central Iran were in Kashan, Kerman, Isfahan, Josheghan, and Tabriz in the Northwest, and Yazd, Shiraz, Herat and Sabzewar in the Northeast.
If you do use these area rugs on a floor you should use a rug pad underneath. This will keep dirt and grit from wearing the underside of the carpet.
