Reproduction Rugs
If you have already spent some time looking for reproduction rugs for sale, then you know you can find machine-made rugs for sale almost anywhere. What you often cannot find in many retail locations, however, are high-quality reproduction area rugs that are hard to tell apart from their handcrafted brethren.
Whether you are looking for machine-made Persian rugs or machine-made Oriental rugs, you will find the variety and quality you want, as you look through our inventory online. We guarantee the quality of our reproduction rugs, just as we do for our handmade rugs. Because we know it is almost impossible to be 100 percent certain than an area rug is perfect for a given space, we also offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. If you are not completely satisfied with the machine-made rugs you buy from Rug Source, you can return them for a full refund within 30 days of your purchase.
Machine Made vs. Handmade Area Rugs
Given the quality of the machine-made area rugs we have for sale, it is sometimes difficult for consumers to tell if they were made by hand or with a machine, especially if they have never bought this kind of rug before. With that in mind, we thought it would be helpful to mention some things you should keep an eye out for when you are shopping for reproduction area rugs so you can tell if a rug was handcrafted or machine made.
Keep the following in mind as you look for machine-made area rugs:
- Because of the way they are made, handcrafted rugs are usually more expensive than reproduction rugs. While there are exceptions to this rule, machine-made Persian rugs and machine-made Oriental rugs are often the more economical choice for people shopping on a strict budget.
- If a rug’s nap is made with polypropylene, polyolefin or a mix of synthetic fibers and wool, the rug is more than likely a reproduction.
- If a rug was produced in a western European country such as Italy or it is described as Belgium Oriental, it’s a safe bet it was machine made.
- If a rug has a tag with a manufacturer’s name on it, it is a sure sign the rug was made with machinery.
- The back of a machine-made rug is normally lacking the same colorfulness the front of the rug has.
- The back of a reproduction area rug has a distinctive overstitch pattern. This pattern is what holds the rug’s pile in place, not the individual knots that are used to make handcrafted rugs.
- The fringe on a handmade rug consists of the ends of the warp strings that are incorporated into the rug, whereas the fringe on reproduction area rugs is added after the rugs are almost finished.
Different Rugs, Same Quality from Rug Source
While reproduction area rugs obviously differ from handmade rugs in several key ways, you can expect the same high quality whenever you purchase a rug from RugSource.com — we guarantee it! To find affordable machine-made Persian rugs and inexpensive machine-made Oriental rugs, look through our inventory of reproduction rugs today.
If you cannot decide which rug you want to have in your home or office, do not worry. We will be glad to help you pick the rug that is right for you based on your unique tastes and needs. Contact our talented sales team and let them be your private designer.
Gabbeh Rugs are Part of a Rich Persian Tradition
The traditional Gabbeh Persian carpet – known as gava in Kurdish and Luri and called khersak in Bakhtiari – is a simple, hand-woven pile rug traditionally made by the nomadic Qashqai tribes who dwelled in the Zagros Mountains of southern Iran, near the city of Shiraz. Other tribes, such as the Lurs, the Kurds and the Bahktiari also weave these carpets.
In Persian, the word “Gabbeh” means “fringe” or “in the rough.” Gabbeh rugs are rough cut and long piled rugs of rich color and the best quality wool. Most Gabbeh carpets are medium size – up to 3’ x 5’ – and feature abstract designs where shapes and color dance playfully with one another.
Variations of the gabbeh rug – such as the “Loribaft”, “Amaleh”, “Kashkuli” – may reflect the heritage of the tribe by which they are woven or the name of the city in which they are most often traded, such as “a Shiraz Gabbeh.”
The 19th century gabbeh rugs were very coarsely knotted (40kpi or less), often with shaggy pile. The name of Gholam Reza Zollanvari is synonymous with modern Gabbeh rugs. Zollanvari learned the rug business from his grandfather, a merchant in the Shirazi rug bazaar. Zollanvari pioneered the construction of fine-weave gabbehs with knot counts of 200+ kpi. Today, Zollanvari rugs are among the most popular styles of Persian rugs.
The Making of a Gabbeh Rugs: A Craft Shared Across Generations
Most Gabbeh carpets are made by women, and many are one-of-a-kind works of art. Some patterns are passed down thru the generations as mothers and grandmothers teach their daughters the art of Persian rug making. Many patterns reflect the weaver’s observations of the environments through which the tribe has passed. Some rugs are even made by the hands of many weavers.
Traditional Gabbeh rugs were woven on makeshift ground looms. These looms are built with materials are carried long distances by the nomadic tribes, or materials found where the tribe settled. Since each loom is unique, each rug is unique; this is how Gabbeh rugs get their distinctive irregular in shape.
Woven with the Wool of Mountain Sheep
Gabbeh rugs are woven from high quality wool from the tribe’s own sheep. As the tribe herds its sheep over hundreds of miles, the nomads reach high altitudes. In the summers, they stay in the highland pastures north of Shiraz in the Zargos Mountains; by winter they sojourn to pasture lands near the Persian Gulf. Sheep grazed in high altitudes produce more lanolin, giving their wool a luxurious softness and resistance to stain.
Rich, Colorful Dyes Give Gabbeh Carpets a Remarkable Color
The Qashqai people find the dyes used in Gabbeh carpets or purchase them in towns where they trade their finished carpets. Often, they use all-natural vegetable dyes to give the wool vibrant color while retaining its lanolin.
Hand-Knotted Rugs with Turkish Symmetrical Knots and Persian Asymmetrical Knots
Most of the wool used in the construction of Gabbeh rugs is handspun using a drop spindle. After the wool has been dyed and handspun, the weaver uses the loom to hand-knot the rug using Turkish symmetrical knots or Persian asymmetrical knots, or even a combination of the two. Because the all the Qashqai tribes use both types of knots, it is difficult to tell from which individual tribe any one rug has come from.
Gabbeh Rugs Are Small – Often Just 3’ x 5’ in Size
A typical size for a Gabbeh carpet is 3 feet by 5 feet. It can take 18 to 25 hours to weave even a small Gabbeh rug. Tribal Gabbeh rugs usually have lower knot counts compared to other types of Persian carpet. This low knot count and the high quality of wool makes Gabbeh rugs famous for their exceptional durability.
Durable Floor Coverings, Wraps and Bedding to Protect from the Mountain Cold
Gabbeh rugs are often floppy because they have wider rows of multiple wefts. This made the soft, pliable rugs ideal as wraps or bedding to insulate against the bitter cold of the mountains.
Gabbeh rugs are often not symmetrical due to the nomadic lifestyle of their creators, and color variations within a rug are common. Often, the variation in color in a rug tells a story of the tribe’s migration, the climates and environments it encountered, and the tribe members who contributed to its creation.
Where to Buy Gabbeh Rugs
Unless you plan to travel to Iran to shop for Gabbeh rugs in the marketplace, we’d suggest buying a Gabbeh rug online from RugSource.com or visiting our showroom. We’re proud to bring these highly coveted rugs to you – please contact us if you’d like to know more.
