Pierre and Dominique Chevalier Craftsmen
weave the past into the present
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weave the past into the present:
"Craftsmen weave the past into the present
By Susan Moore
Published: January 29 2005 02:00 | Last updated: January
29 2005 02:00
It is hard to imagine a more exacting clientele than
today's monied buyers of art and antiques. Collecting
with a whole retinue of advisers in their wake - art
consultants, decorators and conservators - they might
make the odd off-the-cuff decision, see a work of art at
a fair, a gallery or at an auction preview and have it
sent home on approval, but chances are that someone along
the line will shake their head and have it sent straight
back again. As a result, a small but growing band of
leading international antiques dealers are turning
designer/producers, and making their clients exactly what
they do want.
Take third generation Parisian antique tapestry and
oriental rug dealers and restorers, Pierre and Dominique
Chevalier. Frustrated by their clients' very specific
demands, as was their friend and colleague, the
Paris-based Iranian rug dealer and restorer, Ali Bayat,
they hit upon the idea of forming a partnership to create
their own collection.
"Contemporary and traditional oriental carpets no
longer seem to cater for the quality and aesthetic
requirements required by many western buyers,"
explains Dominique Chevalier.
Their idea was to create a collection of original designs
reinterpreting aspects of the classical and modern
repertory - anything from early Persian prototypes or
16th and 17th-century Ottoman textiles to 19th-century
British Arts and Crafts carpets - that could be
commissioned in the dimensions and colours required by
clients, as well as to ensure a quality comparable to the
productions of the glory days of Persian rug manufacture.
Crucial to the project was finding weavers who were able
and willing to relearn or resume traditional working
practices.
Few could be in a better position to source such
craftsmen than Bayat, who had learnt his trade from the
inside, sitting at the loom as a boy with his mother, a
master-weaver, as she taught the village girls how to
knot rugs. Part of his adult life was spent as head of
conservation of rugs and textiles at a Kuwaiti museum.
In July 2001, he and Dominique Chevalier packed their
bags and set off for Iran - wool from the Shiraz Valley
is recognised as the best in the world - travelling 2,000
miles through different regions to visit village
workshops. After making their choice, Bayat taught the
women how to do the traditional Persian knot - preferred
for its strength and aesthetic - and helped the men
reintroduce the use of dyes made out of walnut skin and
pomegranate, indigo, madder, vine leaf and yoghurt and
water. A trial weaving of cartoons was commissioned.
Three months later the Parsua project was born.
Parsua ensures the quality of its product by overseeing
the manufacture of its rugs from beginning to end, from
the selection of local wool and the dying to the crucial
finishing process which gives each rug its characteristic
patina. While most oriental rugs are now washed in a
chemical bath to give them the appearance of age, Parsua
rugs are laid in the sun, dampened and left to dry to
produce a natural patina. It is a long process but one
essential to ensure the longevity of a rug - chemical
baths both weaken and flatten the fibre. These rugs
retain their sumptuous depth. Finally, each piece is
numbered and branded with the initials CB
(Chevalier-Bayat).
Now there are some 70 designs in the Parsua repertoire,
including modern designs. It is possible to modify
existing models - motifs may be added or omitted and
borders changed - as well as specify colour and size.
Rugs can also be purchased from stock or produced to the
client's own design. It takes five months to produce a
carpet of up to 12 sq m or 40 sq ft, 10 months for
something up to 70 sq m or 210 sq ft. (It is worth
mentioning that the Tabriz carpets, the best quality of
the range, have some 300,000-350,000 knots a square
metre.)
As one might expect, such luxury goods do not come
cheaply, with prices ranging from around €1,000 a sq
m-but, as one also might expect, interior decorators have
been snapping them up. Around 100 a year are made, 80 per
cent of them commissioned by interior decorators for
clients in Europe, the Middle East and North and South
America. In February, a second showroom will open, in
London.
"It is our ambition that the rugs we are creating
today become tomorrow's collectable carpets," says
Chevalier."
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