Zabihi Collection 19th Century Museum Caliber Mohtasham Kashan Rug

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Museum Quality astonishing mid-19th century Mohtasham Kashan Rug. This carpet is just as gorgeous today as when it was woven … Read more Museum Quality astonishing mid-19th century Mohtasham Kashan Rug. This carpet is just as gorgeous today as when it was woven 175 years ago, remarkably remaining in exceptional heavier medium pile condition.

Measures: 7'4'' x 10'9''

The most rare group of Kashan carpets that utilizes non-traditional designs and color palettes is the “Motashem Kashan,” which were woven up to the end of the 19th century. This elite class of Kashan carpets uses a very luminous quality of lamb’s wool, which gives the surface a highly reflective quality. Quite hard-to-find, true Motashem Kashan rugs are extraordinarily finely knotted. They employ either a graceful teardrop medallion or intricately detailed all-over blossom and leaf patterns.

Their preferred color palette is subtle pastel and earth tones, contrasted by a penetrating midnight indigo blue. At the same time, these hues retain a remarkable luster, as the rich lanolin has risen to the surface of each fiber of wool.

Also, early Motashem Kashan rugs often demonstrate a very sensitive and emotive use of intentional color shading, a technique known as abrash. In Mohtasham Kashn carpets dating from 1850 or earlier, the abrash is usually subtle and continual, with artful colors shifts within a single design and from one end of the rug to the other. This gives the rug a painterly quality and a visual depth that is akin to that of a watercolor painting. Motasham Kashan carpets of great age with minor to moderate, extremely well-executed restoration and some pile intact are extremely rare and typically held in private collections. See less