Kirman Carpet Late 19th C Lot 165

• Antique Kerman Rugs: Kirman Carpet First Half 19th C Lot 103

• Antique Kerman Rugs: Kirman Carpet C 1880 Lot 214

• Antique Kerman Rugs: Kirman Carpet C 1890 Lot 145

• Antique Kerman Rugs: Kirman Carpet C 1890 Lot 49

• Antique Tree & Bowl

  • Antique Kerman Rugs: Kirman Carpet Late 19th C Lot 165

  • Antique Kerman Rugs: Kirman Carpet C 1890 Lot 143

Vase Carpets do not really come from Kerman. So why is this here? To remind me to write a guide to Vase carpets.

• 17th C Antique Vase Carpet Questionably Attributed to Kirman Lot 52

Ganj Ali Khan Public Bath in Kerman

Lavar Kerman Prayer Rug, Southeast Persia, late 19th century Lot 57

Antique Lavar Kerman Rugs

Kerman is both a city and a Province of the Islamic Republic of Iran. So a Kerman rug may be from the city but more likely the carpet would come from the Province. Raver or Lavar as it is called in the West has had the reputation for the finest Kerman carpets. These so called Lavar Kerman may actually be made in a number of places in Kerman but the market calls them Lavar Kerman. Evidence shows that Laver Kerman rugs were also made in Rafsanjan and that the production of certain producers such as Atiyeh are sold as Lavar Kerman.

Raver was a town 120 miles from the city of Kerman where American companies owned a large number of looms. Through the 20th century the Atiyehs were a major producer of Kerman carpets. It only stopped when due to the Islamic revolution and ensuing difficulties they shifted production to China.

I am pleased to mention that through the efforts of Vice President Seyed Hossein Mar'ashi and Dr. Khosrow Sobhe of the Iranian Carpet Exporters Association working with Tom Atiyeh of Portland Oregon, Atiyeh International, LTD.   returned to Kerman.

"ex nihilo nihil fit"

In theology we use the expression "ex nihilo nihil fit" which basically means "Nothing comes from nothing". In art the same applies. That which comes before influences that which is. I was struck by the importance of Kermani coats in Qajar society so I will group them here to look for design relationships with Kerman rugs.Also note the rug on the floor and the fresh flowers.

Portrait of Prince Ardashir Mirza by Abu'l Hasan Ghaffari / Sani' al-Mulk d. 1852-53AD

Portraitof Prince Imam Verdi Mirza in Kirman coat Second Half 19th C

Expect Kerman carpets to range between 200 and 400 knots per square inch. If a carpet is towards the upper end of the range then it is often called Lavar Kerman Rug. mid to lower end of the scale it is called Kerman. At the low end or below 200 kpsi if the carpet has blue wefts then an attribution of Yazd Rug must be considered.

One consideration that I use in attribution is the borders. It is not an absolute but is a clue is the propensity to use broken or nontraditional borders. Most Persian carpets use a box or frame system of borders. What I am trying to say is that the border frames the field and the field does intrude into the border and vise a versa. As we can see in the Arjomand Kerman carpet above the exact line between field and border is not so rigorously defined. This is getting to be more common but traditionally when I see this I think Kerman, Yazd, or Kashmar.

Jacoby mentioned a propensity to use Purple and Nile Green. Jacoby, Heinrich. How To Know Oriental Rugs and Carpets

An Antique Lavar Kirman carpet, first quarter 20th c lot 145

One hears about the old Kerman structure in rug books but one can go a long time and never see a good example.As you can see we have rigid corded weft then a sinuous weft and then a rigid corded weft between each row of knots.

N.B. It was this structure that caused Mae Beattie to suggest a possible Kerman attribution for Vase Carpets. I feel she was going in the wrong direction but I can certainly understand her rational.

Persian Knot, Open Left, Depressed Warps

Structure: Depressed asymmetrical knot open to the left. However particularly in older Kerman Rugs we see three shots of weft. In the first course it is rigid. the second course is sinuous and the third course is rigid. this is a distinctive weave most similar to a Vase Carpet" weave. This appears to be the main reason that Dr. Mae Beattie made a tentative attribution to Kerman for all Vase Carpets. The similarity between Vase Carpet weave and Kerman weave are similar but not exactly the same. Whereas I have seen a new rug with a Vase Carpet weave from Khorasan.