Carpet, wool knotted pile on cotton foundation, striped design, Mashhad, Iran, 1870-1875

Carpet, wool knotted pile on cotton foundation, ‘moharramat’ striped design with ‘false start’ in lower field.

Field: the lower 1" (2.5 cm) of the field has a horizontal band as though the original field design was changed. It was originally a white ground with two half bands of a small floral design with a red stem, possibly the beginning of a small Herati pattern with three-coloured leaves in evidence. The innermost guard stripes change at this point and the carpet increases in width. The rest of the field is divided into seven vertical stripes, each with a curving meander over the top of a sinuous meander - the latter bearing small blossoms and botehs and the former being spotted. The four red ground stripes have a major meander in light blue and a minor in yellow; the three white ground stripes have a dark blue major meander and a faded purple minor; along either side of these stripes (for the first 2"/5.5cm) there are colour changes until a satisfactory effect had been achieved. Between and beyond each stripe are three narrow stripes; the centre one of each group has a dark blue ground and a red meander with bell-like flowers. Facing the red stripe is a narrow white ground stripe with a green and red meander; the third stripe has a red ground with white and green leaves.

Main border: white ground with large inward-facing botehs containing three smaller botehs. In the middle of the top and bottom border, two join to form a heart-shaped double boteh where they change direction. Along the outer edge are halves of light blue rosettes and other small floral designs, and spotted S-motifs are scattered along the inner edge.

Inner and outer border: dark blue ground with red, green and dark pink (faded) flower heads separated by tiny yellow leaves.

WARP: white cotton; Z5S; 34 threads per inch (136 per dm); depressed. There are many knots in the warp visible on the reverse, especially in the small stripes with a dark blue ground in the right hand side of the carpet; some also appear in the outer left hand border. There are many knots in the warp in the right half of the carpet and also in the outer left hand border, largely on small stripes within the dark blue ground.

WEFT: blue cotton (some dark brown in the lowest part), Z2S and white cotton, Z4S; 3 sinuous shoots of blue cotton after about every 6 knots; 1 straight shoot of white cotton after each row of knots (in effect this simply travels between the two layers of the depressed warp, forming packing with the blue weft holding the two layers together); approximately 26 knots to the inch (approximately 104 knots per dm).

PILE: wool, 9 colours: red, yellow, green, light green, dark blue, light blue, purple (faded to light brown), pink, white. Asymmetrical knot open to the left; predominantly tied around two threads, but also around 4 threads (see below); approximately 442 knots per sq. inch (approximately 7072 per sq. dm). Jufti knots are scattered throughout the carpet but are predominantly and consistently in narrow unpatterned stripes of red, dark blue and purple, and in the dots in the light blue and dark blue meanders. There is also off-set knotting.

SIDE FINISH: one cord oversewn with dark pink wool.

END FINISH: Lower: 1 cm loose plain weave with white cotton weft. Upper: Missing.


Notes:
At first this appeared to be a very individual piece of work. It may have been woven to demonstrate the fineness of line which could be achieved. Perhaps this is why the design was changed; Was the more floral composition too difficult to maintain? Almost immediately an adjustment was made to the outer striped border of the field - it was moved two knots towards the centre. There are only 30 rows of the original pattern before it changes to stripes. However, the odd form of knotting was present from the beginning of the carpet. The type of knot appears to vary with the colour and the position of the colour in the design. In the narrow stripes the red, purple and dark blue are knotted over four threads; only one of the uncovered threads is easily visible. In a group of twelve warp threads forming the narrow stripes in the top left hand corner of the carpet, there are only four knots instead of the six which would have been normal. Jufti knotting is quicker and therefore cheaper and the carpet would require slightly less wool, and so would be lighter and cheaper. Perhaps, if the weaver was spending a lot of time concentrating on the minutely patterned stripes, it was a relief to quickly Jufti knot the unpatterned ones. However, if so, why only Jufti knot some colours and not others? Was it an arbitrary decision?

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."

This is one of the Persian carpets in the Museum's collection in which there is a 'false start' at the lower edge of its field: in this carpet there is the white ground main border along the bottom and the left hand side, and on the inside of this is a series of narrow inner borders. The field was initially white with a very small-scale pattern. The weavers completed about 5 cm (2 in) of it, stopped and re-started with a completely different pattern of stripes. Perhaps the client changed his mind, perhaps the original pattern was taking too long to weave, or perhaps the weavers found it too demanding? This, and other carpets given to the Museum by the Shah, were chosen by his ministers to represent the very best being woven in Iran in 1876.

838-1877