Semi-Antique Chahar Mahal/Bakhtiari Rug

Years ago I sold this rug and this is one of a handful that I wish I still had.

This rug is from up in the Chahar Mahal and may well be a Bakhtiari made rug. It was sold to me as a Malayer or Shahsavan but I think they were a little off. Again I am going to be very conservative and call this Semi-Antique, early 20th century.

Attribution of this piece was rather easy, I just took it down to Keshishian's and got Uncle Jimmy to look at it. Uncle Jimmy took me through the steps. First ignore color and pattern and examine structure. When we did it was by far closest to very old Bakhtiari tribal rugs. After structure comes color and pattern. Since the pattern is not typical for a Bakhtiari it may still be from the Chahar Mahal. There are 120 villages that produce significant quantities of rugs so I leave the attribution as Chahar Mahal/Bakhtiari. Personally I suspect it is Kurdish since it has a mostly wool foundation and it just does not look like a Luri rug to me.

Structure: Symmetrical knot. 7 knots per horizontal inch and 9 knots per vertical inch. 63 per square inch (976 per square decimeter)

Yarn Spin: Z.

Warp: 2 ply tan wool or white Cotton.

Weft: Cotton 1 shot. rigid red.

Pile: 2 Wool singles.

Ends: Reduced, warp fringe.

Selvages: Overcast with brown wool, not original.

Further Notes: The color is outstanding, dyes look very good. Condition is average showing some signs of wears The rug is reduced on the edges.

The color in this reminds me of a palace size Bakhtiari Carpet that my grandfather collected back before W.W.II. The carpet was at least 22 feet long as was dated first quarter 19th century and was inscribed "As a gift to our ruler". That rug dated to the very earliest of the Bakhtiari Chahar Mahal rugs and it had the same range of color. The range of really good greens seems to be common in really good older rugs and carpets from the Chahar Mahal.