Detailed Product Description

Pile: Handspun Rasht Silk

Warp: Silk

Weft: Silk

Selvedge: Silk

Pattern: Metal thread "relief" Shah Abassi with Central Medallion

Knots: 1 210 000 knots per square metre

Total Knots in Whole Carpet: 3 250 786 knots

Dye: 100% natural vegetable colours

Condition: Some tear in the centre and border area; otherwise in perfect condition

Age: First Quarter of the 20th Century

Weight: 6 Kilograms

Description of Design and History:
The pattern is knotted in silk against a woven light blue silkfield and woven pale rose-pink border ground. Kashans of this group arevery highly valued on today´s market, particularly when displaying theextremely fine quality both of knotting and weaving found here, andwith the rich contrasts and precise clarity of ornament that give thispiece its compelling visual character. The intense luminosity of themidnight-blue in the medallion is rarely seen in combination with silk(with its resistance to saturated dye penetration), associated morewith wool Mohtaschems and some Sarouk and Malayer rugs. An intricatered and beige arabesque configuration outlines the main lozenge againstthe light-blue flat-woven field, which is covered with a flower-andleaf stem-lattice of conventional Kashan conception, yet here givendramatic emphasis by its raised-silk, "relief" structure, and thevitality of its dye shades, which produce different chromatic effectswhenever the direction of view is altered. The blue-black cornerspandrels each contain a crisply-detailed ornamental palmette, itsinterior in woven pale blue, against which all subsidiary decoration ispiled. Graceful rinceau and boteh palmettes of great internalcomplexity are piled in a perfectly-organise