Carpet, wool knotted pile on cotton warp and wool weft, 'Mahi' or 'Herati' trellis design on white ground, Kurdistan, Iran, 1870-1875

Carpet, hand knotted woollen pile on cotton warp and woollen weft, Persian, Kurdistan, 1876.
WARP: white cotton; Z5S; 25 threads to the inch (98 per dm) depressed.
WEFT: white wool, NB: purple and white weft in upper 1" (3 cm), red used along the length sometimes alternating with white and sometimes in blocks; Z3S; 2 shoots after each row of knots; 12 knots to the inch (50 per dm).
PILE: wool; 13 colours: red, dark yellow, dark green, green, light green, dark blue, blue, purple, light purple, dark pink, pink, black, white; symmetrical knot tied around 2 warps; 150 knots to the sq. inch (2450 per sq. dm). Because the warp is depressed and the right hand thread of each knot is lower than the elft hand thread, the knot leans towards the right.
SIDE FINISH: one cord oversewn with black wool.
END FINISH: lower: 1" (3 cm) plain weave in white woollen weft with bands of red weft and one row of weft twining in red and green; a red wool plait on one side. The lower edge was created by 2 passes of weft twined through the warp loops. Upper: 1" (2 cm) plain weave, same coloured plait; passes of purple weft; 2 rows twined to create a firm woven edge resulting in a fringe.
DESIGN: Field: white ground with triangular indentations filled with Herati pattern of blossoms and leaves. The blossoms are blue or red and the leaves are red, green and white. The lower part of the field was woven with the horizontal dividing element of the main part design, but the spacing is different and there is a definite line marking a change.
Borders (from the centre):
(1) dark blue ground with a dark yellow meander of multi-coloured rosettes and botehs.
(2) red ground with an angular dark blue meander with diagonal hooked lozenges in red, greens, white and purple.
(3) light green ground with a double meander in dark blue with rosettes alternating dark pink and dark blue; there are small leaves.
(4) as (2)
(5) as (1).

Catalogue Date: 25.2.98

Given by His Majesty Nasir al-Din Shah

In 1877, Nasruddin Shah, the Qajar ruler of Iran, approved a donation of contemporary textiles and carpets to the South Kensington Museum. Organised via Robert Murdoch Smith and Qajar minister Emin al-Mulk, the donation consisted of 14 carpets and 60 other examples of textiles, and was directly intended to advertise Iran's textile industry to British consumers. The accompanying letter to the Museum's Lords of Committee outlined the strategy "We have no doubt whatever that the English Nation has always viewed our manufactures in a kind and friendly manner; and although the Persian Arts have not attained a high rank, nevertheless they have been viewed with a friendly eye and examined in a partial spirit. Such being the case, H.I.M. the Shah resolved that a small quantity of the produce of this country - manufactures by Persian workmen of the present day - should be presented to the said Museum."

False start visible at lower end.

The most noticeable elements of this pattern (sometimes called the Herati pattern) are a diamond and four curling leaves. It remains one of the most popular carpet patterns and appears with many variations: radically different effects can be achieved by simply changing the proportion of the motifs or by using colour to highlight particular parts of it. This and other carpets given to the Museum by the Shah, were chosen by his ministers to represent the very best being produced in Iran in 1876.

834-1877