The Antique Serapi Heriz Rug is one
of the most sought after rugs particularly in the USA and England for
many years. Antique
Serapi rugs are a major draw particularly in big city America, No other
rug so epitomizes the "East Coast Establishment" than the Antique
Serapi
Heriz carpet.
The term
Seapi however is an amazingly emotional and evocative term for rug
collectors. Some people call them Seapi rugs and others call them
Antique Heriz Rugs. The intensity of feeling is similar to
that reserved for politics and sports rivalry.
The line between a Serapi and an antique Heriz is more a matter of
style than substance. For instance Sotheby's New York does not
generally use the term Serapi while their counterparts at Sotheby's
London regularly use the term. In Germany both Nagel and Rippon Boswell
use the term Serapi.
Sarab was both a town and a Khanate. Khanate is an
old fashion term for an administrative district or state. The use of i
on the end indicates that it is from Sarab so simply put Sarabi means
from Sarab. All the rugs and carpets from the Heriz
area would have been known as Sarab under the old name of the area.
The carpets known in the trade as Serapi are clearly from the
old Sarab Khanate. How then did Sarabi carpets become known as Serapi?
I suggest that about the time the west was coming to know the carpets
of Sarab a major news and gossip item was the Prince of Wales 1876 trip
to India on the H.M.S. Serapis. Similar words and I suggest that
Serapis became the popular pronunciation since it was the more familiar
sound.
Cecil
Edwards made the point that Serapi rugs are from Sarab.
In the United States the
highest quality of Antique Heriz Carpets are called Serapi.
Quality is higher than the
average and knot counts are around 80 knots per square inch with the
very best going up to 100 knots per square inch.
Serapi
rugs fall into two separate styles. The all over design is fairly busy
but the other group is the medallion style. The medallion rugs are far
less busy than later Heriz rugs. Both groups have the mellow jewel
tones of antique natural dyed rugs.
Title The Troopship Serapis Arriving at
Portsmouth on May 11th, 1876 with H.R.H. the Prince of Wales Aboard, on
his Return from India
Artist Arthur Wellington Fowles
Gallery N.R. Omell
Work Date 1876
Category Painting
Materials Oil on canvas
Markings Signed and dated 1876
Size h: 33.5 x w: 58.5 in / h: 85.1 x w: 148.6 cm
Subject Marine Art/Seascape
Sarab was both a town and a Khanate. Khanate is an
old fashion term for an administrative district or state. The use of i
on the end indicates that it is from Sarab so simply put Sarabi means
from Sarab. All the rugs and carpets from the Heriz
area would have been known as Sarab under the old name of the area. The
carpets known in the trade as Serapi are clearly from the old
Sarab Khanate. How then did Sarabi carpets become known as Serapi? I
suggest that about the time the west was coming to know the carpets of
Sarab a major news and gossip item was the Prince of Wales 1876 trip to
India on the H.M.S. Serapis. Similar words and I suggest that Serapis
became the popular pronunciation since it was the more familiar sound.
Structure: Depressed symmetrical knot pulled
right. Knot counts can range from 25 to 100.
Often
newcomers to Oriental Rugs assume that finer means better. With Serapi
rugs this is not at all the case. Anything over 100 knots per square
inch looks wrong.
Sarab
Sarab has lent it's name to a
group of camel ground runners generally attributed to the town of Sarab
its self up into the beginning of the 20th century.
