Description
Stately vintage Persian Bakhtiari garden rug, featuring songbirds, flowers, and trees. Traditional colors, including a buttery ivory field color that is quite distinct to Bakhtiari weavers.
Good condition with moderate wear from decades of normal use. Despite the wear the carpet remains rugged, with no holes or weak areas, and can be used in a high foot traffic area of the home.
Fringes and side cords are in very good shape.
Colors include indigo blue, yellow, brick red, salmon, white, green, black and brown. The dyes are all natural with the exception perhaps of one or two of the several reds.
Natural wool woven onto natural cotton. 1940s. Exact size is 11 ft. by 5 ft. 5 in.
Photo with Morgan silver dollar shows the backside.
This is a distinctive and traditional design woven by the Bakhtiari tribe of Iran. The motif can symbolize Paradise, an oasis, a courtly garden, and the seasons of nature.
Rugs with compartments containing garden motifs were produced in Persia in the 16th century, and are known as Kheshti rugs.
The Bakhtiari tribe, numbering 800,000, inhabit an area of 67,000 sq. km that straddles the central Zagros Mountains in Iran. Although only about a third of the tribe is nomadic (the rest are settled agriculturists), the nomads embody the Bakhtiari cultural ideals.
They specialize in producing meat and dairy products and migrate seasonally with their sheep, cattle, or goat herds from high plateau pastures, where they spend the summer, west of the city of Esfahan, to lowland plains in the province of Khuzistan for winter herd grazing.
Their migration is among the most spectacular known among nomadic paternalists anywhere. They cross mountain passes at about 3,050 m. and therefore have to time their movement with extreme care in order to minimize the danger of early snowfall, flooding mountain rivers, and lack of grazing.
Please contact me with questions or to request more photos. Shipping is $43 within the continental U.S.
Thank you.
(BA0118 O9)