Middle East, Textile, Carpet; Carpet, wool pile on cotton foundation, medallion and double niche design, possibly Hamadan, Iran, 1850-1900

Carpet design:
Field: the whole of the field is filled by a double-waisted hexagon with a dark blue ground and a light yellow lattice holding light yellow floral sprigs. A full width hexagon with two pendants lies in the centre; they have a dark blue ground with bold floral devices. In the centre of the hexagon lies a red rosette with a white centre with a yellow and green stylized pair of leaves at the four cardinal points and from them are stems with yellow flowers. The lower two corners have a dark blue ground with small stylized rosettes while the upper two corners repeat a quarter of the central part of the hexagon - the red rosette and the ywlloe leaves.
Borders:
Innermost: reciprocal trefoil in red and purple.
Inner border: light yellow ground with a yellow angular meander with red and yellow bands.
Main border: dark blue ground with double angular meander in red with disgonal leaves in light blue, yellow or green. the double meander creates a space on which lie three narrow red vertical lines on which lie buds and a floral stepped cross.
Outer border: light yellow ground with red, purple and yellow carnations.
Note: the lower right hand part is from a side border and lies against the direction of the warp. The whole of the upper borders are also from a side border. This carpet has probably been a long runner and has been reduced in length.

A careful examination of this carpet shows that it was originally a long runner which has been reduced in length. There is a stepped diagonal seam running down from the upper left hand corner to immediately below the inner border. It runs along the lower edge of it and then goes diagonally up to the upper right hand corner. We usually assume that carpets, especially fairly large ones, are the size and shape they always were, but a surprising number of pre-20th century carpets have been altered. Sometimes worn or damaged areas were removed to improve the appearance of the carpet and sometimes the shape was changed so that it would fit into a new space.

T.542-1919