Design & Production
If design is reduced to its lowest common denominator, then a fundamental difference can be made between designs made up of rectilinear or geometric elements – they lie at 45,90 and 180 degrees to each other and those that are curvilinear or floral designs with genuine curved lines. The former are associated with the nomadic or tribal Turkmen and define a tradition when the weaver was also the designer of the carpet. The latter curvilinear designs, which are a finer weave, in order to be able to achieve their effect, need the pattern to be drawn out on graph paper and requires some kind of manufacturing organisation, since specialist skills were required to undertake the drawing out of the pattern. Here the designer is separate from the weaver and this also implies that carpets are made to order and for sale to designs set by the manufacturer or designer.
Note should be made that curvilinear designs date back to an explosion of floral designs around the Persian and Turkish Court Manufactories in the 16th Century and relate also to the emergence of an elite consumer market for luxuries in the western world during the 17th Century6. Although these court sponsored manufactories were to decline in the late 18th century, western interest in oriental carpets was to be revived in the 19th Century. A number of firms originating from the west including Ziegler (an Anglo-Swiss company) and Oriental Carpet Manufactory were to establish them in Persia, leading to a renewal of carpet production in Persia from 1880 onwards.
The Structure
The structure of the carpet is determined by the way in which the loops of wool are tied or knotted around the warp strings and are anchored in place by a weft string. There are essentially two types of knots. The first is the Turkish knot which is symmetrical and, it is argued by some, contributes to the more angular geometric designs associated with Turkmen carpets5. The second is the Persian knot, which is an asymmetrical knot and here the warps are half staggered. A weft string holds the loops of wool in. The knotting can either be single wefted with a single row of knots per single pass of the warp thread or double wefted where the weft thread is passed twice per row of knots. Double wefting completely covers the warp threads.
The Colors
The colours of a carpet are determined by the dyestuffs that are used, the type of wool that is used, the dyeing process and the kind of wash that is applied after the carpet is finished. Up until 1850, natural vegetables dyes used from a wide range of plants and minerals were used exclusively for the dyeing of wool. The best quality dyes produced subtle and harmonious colours that were not fully fast to either light or washing. As the carpets aged, the colours gradually changed, if anything becoming richer and mellower in hue. Vegetable dyes continued to be used both among the Mauri rugs (see later) and also with the Chob Rang3 carpets.
From the 1850s onwards chemical dyes started to be used. Initially the dyes were of poor quality and were fugitive, neither fast to light or washing. However since the 1920s and onwards the chemical dyes have been developed and two of the important colours – indigo blue and madder red can now be reproduced exactly by chemical means. There are two basic types of chemical dyes – those that are fast and do not fade or mellow, thus removing the ageing process that is associated with the best quality dyes.
Carpets and rugs Search:
|mauri rugsThe Material
Design, materials, colour, workmanship and expressive capacity are all elements that serve to differentiate quality in carpets. Some of these dimension are readily assessed, other are more open to interpretation. First there is a choice of materials with respect to the warp (the longitudinal threads of the textile backing), the weft (the latitudinal threads of the textile backing) and the pile. Silk has a fineness and brilliance to it that allows suppleness in the final product and an intricacy of design consistent with a high knot count (see below) and these may be the most expensive of carpets.
However they are not hard wearing (particularly if silk is used warp, weft and pile1) and therefore are limited in their functional value. Silk carpets are produced in the Andkhoy region, most notably by weavers in Alti Bolaq village but it is a very small proportion (2%) of weavers who have the skills and capital to produce these carpets.
