Design Influences in Kerman/Kirman Antique Rugs

In my  Persian Rugs: Guide to Kerman Rugs  I reflected on the design influences on the rugs of Kerman/Kirman Antique Rugs

Portrait of Qajar Prince

"ex nihilo nihil fit" In theology we use the expression "ex nihilo nihil fit" which basically means "Nothing comes from nothing". In art the same applies. That which comes before influences that which is. I was struck by the importance of Kermani coats in Qajar society so I will group them here to look for design relationships with antique Kerman rugs.Also note the rug on the floor and the fresh flowers. Portrait of Prince Ardashir Mirza by Abu'l Hasan Ghaffari / Sani' al-Mulk d. 1852-53AD Portraitof Prince Imam Verdi Mirza in Kirman coat Second Half 19th C

Antique Serapi Heriz Persian Carpet

Antique Serapi Heriz Persian Carpet

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Antique Serapi Heriz Persian Rug from Herat Oriental's Oriental Rug warehouse in Alexandria, Va. Zia is a wholesale Importer of new and antique Persian and Oriental Rugs.

Notes on Elena Tsareva

Elena Tsareva is a delightful person whose brilliance is only matched by her incredible warmth, wit, and charm.  Tsareva  is a Curator at the Russian Ethnographic Museum in St. Petersburg Russia. I met here in Washington DC  in the late 1990s where we had a chance to examine the ensi that is illustrated here.  Tsareva  is considered one of the world's foremost experts on Turkmen Rugs.

Articles
1994 Suzanis of Central Asia, Eothen: Jahreshefte der Gesellschaft der Freunde Islamischer Kunst und Kultur, (trans. from Russian), 2./3. Jahrgang, 1991/92, Editio Maris, Munich, pp. 63-80.

Books:
Tzareva, R.: Rugs and Carpets from Central Asia ; Vienna: 1984.
Tsareva, Elena. Carpets of Central Asian Nomads ; Genova: 1993.
Tzareva, Elena. Rugs and Carpets from Central Asia: The Turkomans, the Uzbeks, the Karakalpaks, the Kirghiz, the Kazakhs, the Baluch. Aurora Art Publishers, Leningrad.
TURKMEN CARPETS: MASTERPIECES OF STEPPE ART, FROM 16TH TO 19TH CENTURIES, THE HOFFMEISTER COLLECTION

Iranian Yomut on Turkotek

Jafarbei Yomut Rug

For 15 years poor Steve Price has been disparaging me and my work. Mostly because of jealousy and bitterness over the times I have a little fun with him. But I glanced at Turkotek tonight and in the first thread I saw I noticed that like usual I was cited and a picture from my site was used. It must gall the heck out of Steve that even though Turkotek was created to keep me out Steve's intrepid band keeps dragging me back in. Here is an image that Rich Larkin added:

I do not really mind but I think it is very poor form to lift an image without a link back to the page they took it from. It takes the picture out of context and is a disservice to their readers. You can see the thread at: http://www.turkotek.com/VB37/showthread.php?t=1377 I wonder if Steve will remove the image after I post this. Seems to me that it is Jafarbei Yomut (Shi'a) rug. Steve was not clear on the tribe but he has learned a little over the years.

Antique Persian Farahan Oriental Rug

Antique Persian Rug that may well be an old Farahan Oriental Rug. The border looks mid 1800s and the snakes in the trees are very unusual. Let me know what you think this rug should be properly described as.

Tanavoli Iran's Greatest sculptor to Show Persian Rugs in Dubai

I have had the privilege of knowing Parviz Tanavoli for many years. In all that time despite being Iran's greatest sculptor and a huge commercial success Tanavoli has never lost his love for the traditional hand woven village and tribal rugs of the Iranian people. In 2005 Tanavoli and I vigorously lobbied the Iranian Ministry of Commerce in Tehran to preserve and protect the authentic village art of the Persian people. It is exciting to see his continued efforts to preserve the essential art form of the people of Iran. In many ways Tanavoli is to Persian Art what the Imam Khomeini was to Persian Shia Islam. When each returned from exile they changed the country and the world.

Tanavoli to showcase his Persian carpets in Dubai

Art Desk On Line: 03 December 2011 15:40 In Print: Sunday 04 December 2011

TEHRAN -- The Iranian Etemad Gallery in Dubai will be hanging a collection of Persian carpets created by veteran Iranian sculptor Parviz Tanavoli from December 9-14.

Highlighting the significance of Persian carpets and its beautiful designs and patterns, the exhibit will be narrating part of the history of Persian carpets.

Known as the country’s first significant modern sculptor, Tanavoli has concentrated on old pictorial carpets which have been replaced with modern designs these days, the Persian service of ILNA reported on Saturday.

Tanavoli is the author of “Persian Flatweaves”, the first comprehensive survey on Persian carpets and the exhibit is trying to show part of these old flatweaves.

Flatweaves have until recently been seen as merely the products and property of the poor. Since the late 1960s, however, growing attention has been paid to the best known type of flatweave, the kilim, revealing both its quality and variety.

Antique Oriental Rugs

 Oriental Rugs

Antique Oriental Rugs

 Antique Oriental rugs have always been synonymous with exotic luxury, elegant design, and a comfortable, highly aestheticized environment. From the earliest times, humans have needed to embellish and ornament the circumstances in which they lived, and the medium of woven carpets soon emerged to meet such requirements. Carpet production is attested from ancient times. Flatwoven floor coverings are probably as old as textiles and architecture. The oldest knotted pile carpets can be attested by the sixth century B.C., but their production may well be considerably older. Some experts believe that pile carpets originated among tent-dwelling nomadic peoples to the east of Central Asia as a more decorative substitute for animal hides, providing comfort and insulation as well as decoration. Carpet making reached the Near East through contact with such nomadic peoples. Since relations between Central Asian nomads and the Near East were more or less constant, the production of pile carpets in the latter region was probably stimulated and influenced by nomadic traditions again and again.

Antique Oriental Rugs

This process first becomes clear in the medieval period, between the eleventh and the fourteenth centuries, when various Central and East Asian peoples like the Turks and Mongols came to power across the eastern Islamic world, bringing with them traditions of carpet making that were by now many centuries old. The earliest Near Eastern carpets of this kind are those of Seljuk Turkey and those made in Iran under the Mongol and Timurid dynasties. Carpets of this kind now began to have highly complex designs influenced by contemporary textiles, especially silks.

Antique Oriental Rugs

From this period on, the knotted pile carpet became an increasingly standard feature of Islamic art and high culture, and soon it captured the attention of wealthy Europeans as well. Already by the thirteenth century merchant travelers like Marco Polo remarked on the beauty of the Oriental carpets they encountered on their journeys, and soon such carpets began to be imported into Venice and thence to the rest of Europe. While actual early carpets of this kind are rarely preserved, European painting by the great masters from Giotto and Ghirlandaio to Holbeim, van Eyck, Lotto, and Vermeer constantly depict carpets from Turkey and Iran. Such paintings document the importance that the Oriental rug had attained by this time as a quintessential symbol of cosmopolitan taste and affluence. So valued were these carpets that there were various attempts to imitate or adapt them in Europe.

Antique Oriental Rugs

After the seventeenth century Europeans briefly lost interest in the Oriental carpet. This probably reflected developments in the Near and Middle East, where all the great ruling dynasties collapsed or went into regression, bringing about a corresponding roll-back in the quantity and quality of carpet production. During this hiatus European carpet production was stepped up, creating the Aubusson and Savonnerie types in a Neo-Classical western style. Carpet production in Spain, which had begun under Muslim rule in the Middle Ages, also moved in to meet the European demand for rugs.

Antique Oriental Rugs

In the second half of the nineteenth century, rug weaving in Iran went into a great period of revival under the highly retrospective Qajar dynasty, re-awakening the European interest for Oriental rugs and creating a new American market for them as well. This eventually led to a revival or expansion of carpet production in Turkey and also a revival of Indian carpet weaving under British rule. At this time Chinese rugs, whose production went back to ancient times, finally became known in quantity to European and American markets.

Antique Oriental Rugs

From that time on the western world became used to an endless variety of Oriental rugs and carpets whose production continues into the present time. The most notable recent developments are the revival of vegetable dyes and hand-spinning of wool, which had largely died away in the course of the twentieth century. Such new productions capture much of the quality and original flavor of antique Oriental rugs. But only a genuine antique can preserve the soul and spirit of  weaving  Oriental rugs, an art form that reaches back virtually unbroken to the earliest times. Antique Oriental rugs are not only objects of great beauty and rarity; they are a much-needed bridge to a bygone world of consummate skill and expressiveness that is vastly different from the mass-culture of modern western experience.