19th Century N.W. Persian Bakshaiesh Carpet ( 7'8" x 14'8" - 234 x 447 )

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Antique Bakhshaiesh Persian rug 7'8" x 14'8".
Heriz – Bakhshaish Type
Azerbaijan Province, NW Persia
7’8” X 14’8”
Circa 1880s
… Read more Antique Bakhshaiesh Persian rug 7'8" x 14'8".
Heriz – Bakhshaish Type
Azerbaijan Province, NW Persia
7’8” X 14’8”
Circa 1880s
“Heriz” is a rather generic name applicable to rugs and carpets from the general area around the rustic town of Heriz and includes, as here, “Bakhshaish”, “Serapi”, “Goravan”, Bilverdi , Ahar, and various other grades, types, periods and trade appellations. This wool foundation, symmetric (Turkish) knotted long carpet from the pre-export 1860 to 1880 period shows a corroded chocolate brown field with an allover Herati design. When viewed from a distance, there is a tall, lozenge lattice over-pattern. Often the field will be dark blue with an identical pattern.
The beige main border displays the ever-popular bracketed rosette and double bent leaf design with an attempt to symmetries the top and bottom strip borders. The side borders, of distinctly darker beige, are neatly fitted in. There is no attempt at rational corner turns. This is a usual Heriz practice. The inner minors employ tilted small fan palmettes.
The secondary colors include: light-medium blue, teal, straw, sand and salmon. All colors are of natural origin.
The elongated format is strictly Persian. The Western 8’ by 12’ dimensions were imposed as export demand increased after 1870. This carpet may have been part of a four-part room setting, with two parallel runners and a crosspiece at one end. Or it may have worked along on the floor of some local buyer.
This carpet is clearly a village production with the design not exactly centered. The carpet was woven in a household setting, not in a large factory with the weavers working from memory. No cartoons or diagrams were employed. The Herati pattern was so intuitive to weavers all across and beyond Persia, that they could execute it in their sleep. It was [popular in the 19th century and did not require a designer to create a medallion (and corners), thus keeping costs down and expediting the weaving process. For this carpet, a medallion would be no improvement.
The period of these Bakhshaish piece pretty much ended in the 1880’s and later Bakhshaish-manner carpets are much more squarish. This is a fine example of a type that came into and out of fashion and has left few, or no, survivors in Persia in their original sites.
The condition is generally good, with some appropriate corrosion to the dark brown and with the other areas still high and nearly shaggy. For a carpet nearly a century and a half old, the condition is exceptional. See less