Rugs From Europe - Scandinavia

Scandinavia has a long tradition of weaving natural homespun flat-weave and shaggy colorful rugs that are necessary in order to cope with the long, dark days of the Scandinavian winter. This is a home or cottage industry, with a continuous tradition over the centuries. It has never died out, but had evolved, particularly during the 20th century, to produce highly modern designs and patterns that are based on ancient motifs.

Rya rugs are double-pile rugs, thick and shaggy, made for warmth in various parts of Scandinavia (especially Finlad), and they may have been inspired by the animal skins that would originally have been used as rugs and coverlets. They date back at least to the 10th century, and were used both as floor coverings and bed covers. They were initially in solid colors, but by the late 18th century, they were being decorated with designs taken from pattern books imported from France and Germany.

The double-weave Scandinavian rugs and pillows from the south of Sweden, known as rolakans, also have a particular boldness in juxtapositions of clear, bright colors, together with that clarity and simplicity of design that is particular to Scandinavia. They were often woven in wide stripes or repeating interlocking triangles, using plain rather than split-weave technique. These rugs use patterns that seem to have survived, more or less unchanged, since Viking times.

*sourced from 'Carpet Style' by Marty Phillips

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
www.RugIdea.com
Tel. 310-770-9085

City Workshops

Cities, such as Tabriz, Kerman, Kashan, and Meshed, are historically the largest in Iran and the most important centers of trade. During the "court" period (late 16th to early 18th centuries), finely knotted silk carpets, with gold and silver threads woven, were woven for the Safavid nobility. A court miniaturist created the designs, which were then converted to cartoons and used as models for the weavers. Persian artists, constantly searching for something new, devised more and more complex designs, and often introduced religious and poetic verses into the rug.

Court carpet workshops closed in the early 18th century, when the towns were occupied by the Afghans. In the 1920's, however, workshop carpets from these cities began to appear in Europe again, and they are still among the most outstanding oriental carpets that it is possible to find. The pile is cut very short, so that the contours of the pattern emerge very clearly. Almost all the city workshop carpets have a bright ground and symmetrical design. Medallions are often lobed, with 8 or 16 points.

Best-quality carpets are not normally woven in very large sizes, because they take several years to make. Many city carpets are renowned for their fine detailing. The pictorial rugs are justly famous, and include the four seasons (an allegory of the life of an Azerbaijanian peasant), ruins of mosques and palaces (of which there are many in the area), and magnificent vases and bowls found by archaeologists. Meshed carpets usually date from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the most common design is the medallion, usually round or elongated in shape, and decorated with pendants and floral motifs. They are sometimes made with the jufti knot, which originated in the region. The coarser qualities are not particularly hard-wearing.

*sourced from 'Carpet Style' by Barty Phillips

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
www.RugIdea.com
Tel. 310-770-9085

Heriz Rugs

Heriz is the best known of a number of villages in a district of northwestern Iran that stretches to Tabriz, and its carpets are superior in quality to others created in the region. The silk carpets that were woven there in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries were unsurpassed. Very large wool carpets were woven at that time, too, but these rarely come up at auction.

Modern Heriz carpets are of coarser yarn, so the number of knots is fairly low. Nevertheless, they wear extremely well. Although the city of Tabriz is so near, Heriz rugs are quite different in character, and retain an identity very much their own. The dominant composition is based on an enormous and powerful angular central medallion in a field of geometric floral motifs, with the corners echoing the medallion. Surrounding  villages produce variations on this theme, and many produce well-made, tightly woven rugs in curvilinear medallions and corner designs.

Come into Rug Ideas today to see great Heriz rugs that can liven up your home!

sourced from 'Carpet Style' by Barty Phillips

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
www.RugIdea.com
Tel. 310-770-9085

Rugs From Iran (Part 3)

The ancient trade routes, which connect the east with the west were developed and influenced through the centuries by notable people such as Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Marco Polo, and Richard the Lion Hearted. These trade routes came to be known as the Silk Road. The desire for silk among the wealthy class during Roman times lead to the development of these roads on which traveled caravans from China to Europe. As all of these early east-west roads passed through the so called wool belt, where hand-knotted rugs were woven, it is only natural that Oriental Rugs became popular trade items.

During the time the crusades trade was expanded to western Europe where fueled by the intrigue of the mystical east the desire for such luxury items rapidly grew with the emerging of wealthy classes. As the demand for the goods increased, the size and frequency of the caravans increased. Realizing this as a viable source of income the kings, sultans, shahs and khans imposed tariffs and tolls on these caravans as they crossed their borders. These caravans also faced the dangers of having to deal with robbers, pirates, thieves, disease, the shortage of food and water as well as other road hazards.

In time Ocean travel became more economical and efficient and replaced the long distant caravans of ancient times and today the so called Silk Road is just a fading memory.

sourced from 'The Mystique of Oriental Rugs' by O.R.R.A

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
www.RugIdea.com
Tel. 310-770-9085

From Tents To Palaces

The rugs that now adorn countless homes, offices and even palaces trace their ancestry to nomadic tribes which wandered the desolate lands of Turkey, Iran, and the Caucasus. These nomadic tribesmen who herded sheep used the wool to create monochromatic flat-weave rugs.

As time passed, they began dying the wool with natural dyes and creating simple, geometric patterns. These same, centuries old techniques can still be found in kilims, grain sacks and saddlebags being woven today by people whose lifestyles remain the same as their ancestors.

No one knows when the first tufts of wool were woven in the threads of a carpet to create a raised surface, i.e. pile. Pile rugs have been discovered in tombs and burial sites which date back to the fifth century B.C.. The Pazyryk Carpet discovered by S.I. Redinko, in a frozen tomb in Siberia is now housed in the hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia. These early rugs demonstrate many of the same techniques and design in use today.

During the sixteenth and seventeenth century these pile rugs became coveted in Europe, where they were used at table coverings and wall hangings. By the eighteenth century Oriental Rugs had begun to be used as floor coverings. Their popularity has continued to grow, and they can now be found throughout the world.

Sourced from 'The Mystique of Oriental Rugs' by the Oriental Rug Retailers of America

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
www.RugIdea.com
Tel. 310-770-9085

All about Yazd Rugs

Yazd is an ancient city in central Iran between the famous cities of Isfahan and Kerman, surrounded by desert with an area of 72,000 km2. The population of Yazd was 327,000 in 1996. A  large number of Zorastrians still live in Yazd.

The history of Yazd dates back to the time of Alexander the Great, one thousand years before the introduction of Islam. During the Sassanid Empire (AD 224-651), the city of Yazd was an important center for silk production and silk textile throughout the 13th century. Marco Polo, the famous Italian traveler (1254-1324) who traveled on the Silk Road, on his way to Goby Desert visited the city of Yazd and mentioned the golden thread fabrics made by the textile makers of Yazd.

The Yazd rugs have asymmetrical ( Persian ) knots with three wefts. The number of knots in square inch is much lower than Isfahan rugs and Nain rugs, but the pile is softer and longer. The quality of the wool which is from the local is fine and the natural dye makes the rug look lustrous. In the desert surrounding the city of Yazd, madder is cultivated and its root is used for different shades of deep and light red.

Some of the designs look like Kashan with one big centered medallion. Other designs resemble Kerman rugs with open field background and floral borders derived from the book covers. There are some other geometrical as well as curvilinear designs which resemble non of Kashan or Kerman pattern such as "East 
London " design. It is common to make room-size carpets in Yazd.Yazd is also the home for Zilo, a kind of cotton flat weave made for mosques and endowment to wholly shrines with only two colors of white and blue cotton yarns.

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
www.RugIdea.com
Tel. 310-770-9085

World's Oldest Handknotted Rug - Pazyryk Rug

In 1949 Russian archaeologists Rudenko and Griaznov discovered the oldest known "knotted" carpet in the Pazyryk valley, on the Altai Mountains of Siberia. It is the only received carpet from Achaemenian. Although it was found in a Scythian burial-mound, nevertheless the most experts attribute it to Persia. Its design is in the same style as the sculptures of Persepolis. This becomes clear particularly in the two broad borders. The outer of the two principal border bands is decorated with a line of horsemen: seven on each side, twenty-eight in number which corresponds exactly to the number of men, who carried Xerxes thorn in Persepolis, some are mounted, while others walk beside their horses. In the inner principal band there is a line of six elks on each side in opposite direction The Square in the carpet field, occupied with large rosette, reminds the Assurbanipal palace. The carpet survived over 2000 years as where it was found, preserved in the frozen tombs of Scythian chiefs, and is now the showpiece of the Hermitage Museum of Leningrad/St. Petersburg. The intricacy of this rug suggests even at this early date, the art of carpet weaving had progressed well beyond simple rugs designed for practical purposes.

Source: http://www.pazyrykart.com/

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
www.RugIdea.com
Tel. 310-770-9085