Oriental Carpets and Rugs
A Historical Perspective
A popular pastime of students of Persian, Afghan and Turkish carpets and rugs before the early part of the twentieth century was to try and identify pieces in Italian and Dutch paintings of the fourteenth and fifteenth century, good examples were found in paintings by Holbein.
Out of the blue came news of a discovery by a Russian man called Rudenko in a tomb in the Altai Mountains of Siberia, he discovered a rug going knotted between the third and fifth century. The amazing thing was the textile was 90% in tact as it had been preserved in ice after the grave had been broken into allowing water to come in and freeze the tomb.
It wasn't until the end of the 19th century that carpets and rugs properly entered western society. Up to that point they were thought of as wall hangings and table covers. At the beginning of the 20th century carpets and rugs really took off as an essential furnishing item, particularly in Europe, demand simply outstripped supply.
Out of the blue came news of a discovery by a Russian man called Rudenko in a tomb in the Altai Mountains of Siberia, he discovered a rug going knotted between the third and fifth century. The amazing thing was the textile was 90% in tact as it had been preserved in ice after the grave had been broken into allowing water to come in and freeze the tomb.
It wasn't until the end of the 19th century that carpets and rugs properly entered western society. Up to that point they were thought of as wall hangings and table covers. At the beginning of the 20th century carpets and rugs really took off as an essential furnishing item, particularly in Europe, demand simply outstripped supply.
Pieces from central Persia tended to be more classical in design, Chinese pieces tended to be less busy in design and contained medallions and dragons, Afghan and Turcoman pieces tended to be busier with the gul (elephant foot design) being common. Pieces from the Caucasus were geometric and angular in design featuring exquisite flower and vegetable dyes.
A firm specifically set themselves up to weave and supply decorative carpets in N/W Persia in the late nineteenth early twentieth century to weave stunning drawing room and dinning room carpets for western society, the name of the company was Ziegler & co. The designs tended to be large and the colours were beautifully soft.
Nowadays almost all the carpets on the market originate from these humble beginnings.
A firm specifically set themselves up to weave and supply decorative carpets in N/W Persia in the late nineteenth early twentieth century to weave stunning drawing room and dinning room carpets for western society, the name of the company was Ziegler & co. The designs tended to be large and the colours were beautifully soft.
Nowadays almost all the carpets on the market originate from these humble beginnings.
