Kashan Rugs: A Tribute to the Safavid Dynasty of the Persian Empire
Kashan rugs are an export from one of Iran’s oldest cities, Kashan, dating back to the 17th century or late 16th century. Kashan was a hub of silk production beginning with the Safavid dynasty, a golden age of Persian weaving under the reign of Shah Abbas.
Contemporary Kashan rug sales began toward the end of the 19th century, when Kashan merchants hoped to replicate the success of weaving shops in Tabriz to the north. During this era, many antique Kashan rugs were commissioned for individual homes. The best Kashan carpets of the 19th-century and turn of the 20th century are formal, traditional and luxurious.
The warp and weft of Kashan rugs are usually made of cotton with the traditional asymmetrical Persian know. The thin double weft is often woven between 120 knots per square inch and 840 knots per square inch. The finished texture of Kashan rugs is soft to the touch. The best Kashan carpets use a superior quality of wool that sometimes has silk mixed in.
An antique Kashan rug was colored with vegetable dyes, which contribute to their unique texture, but
modern Kashan rugs (from the 1930s) use contemporary chrome dyes.
The highly sought after curvilinear designs of Kashan weaving was popularized by Kashan weavers in the early 1900s. The Kashan rug typically centers around a teardrop medallion, though intricately detailed motifs like palmettos, blossoms, leaves and arabesques are common, as well. The “Royal Garden” of Kashan is the source of a notable garden motif that is the archetype of Persian carpet designs. Another inspiration for many Kashan carpets is the “Garden of Paradise.”
Pakistani Kashan Rugs
When the Mogul empire spread through Iran to the Indian subcontinent, the work of Persian weavers was carried to modern day Pakistan. The city of Lahore today produces the vast majority of modern Pakistani Kashan rugs.
Like their Iranian forebears, Pakistani Kashans use a wool pile on a cotton base. Mogul Kashan rugs use the Senneh knot, an asymmetrical double knot that produces a dense, heavy weave, making them extremely durable. One of the main distinctions between Iranian and Pakistani Kashan rugs is the use of color. Pakistani Kashans feature predominantly pastel shades, whereas a traditional Persian Kashan carpet may include richer reds, greens and blues.
Motasham Kashan Carpets: Exceptional…and Exceptionally Rare
Motasham Kashan carpets are the rarest group of Kashan carpets. They feature non-traditional designs and color palettes and were woven with lamb’s wool renowned for its luminous, reflective sheen. True Motasham Kashan rugs are finely knotted and extremely difficult to find.
Dating from the middle of the 19th century, antique Motasham Kashan carpets are among the finest Persian carpets. Early Motasham Kashan rugs (pre-1850) use a technique known as abrash, marked by an emotive use of color shading and color shifts. They commonly feature an antique ivory or gold background and subtle pastel tones throughout the weave. Over time, the dyes in an antique Motasham rug will soften and acquire an earthy patina. The rich lanolin will rise to the surface of the wool fibers over time, given the rug an extraordinary luster.
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.
Red Rugs
Red and burgundy area rugs will always provide a very sophisticated, warm energy to any given room within a home or office. Red rugs quite easily create focal points within living, dining and bedrooms; and this is mainly because these bright, bold colors naturally draw in a viewer’s attention.
Burgundy rugs tend to be a little less attention commanding, but these deeper hues often work beautifully as a complementing piece of art that accents a room’s furniture and walls without being overwhelming.
Our affordable options and unique rug selection beats out all of our big box online competitors, and our unbeatable customer service is what has always set Rug Source apart from the rest of the industry. Professional decorators and interior designers choose us time and time again for our high-quality, affordable options; and everyone else likes working with us because we go above and beyond when it comes to assisting our clients in their search for the perfect rug match.
On this page we’re going to discuss our guide to purchasing red rugs, which includes information pertaining to why they’re great for home décor, important considerations to keep in mind, and tips for finding your perfect red rug.
We understand that you’re likely to have questions or concerns when going through your final options on your way to purchasing your next area rug, which is why our team of experts is always here to support you throughout every step of the rug shopping process.
We always encourage our clients to reach out to us when they have any questions or concerns pertaining to our online inventory, so contact us online today to speak with one of our team’s experts.
Why Red Rugs For Home Décor?
Red area rugs always are absolutely fantastic when it comes to developing a classic ambience within any home’s décor, and these rugs are truly timeless and have remained in style for centuries!
Feng Shui is the general design practice of striking balance between our living spaces and the natural world, and in Feng Shui our living and dining rooms are meant to coincide with the earth element. This type of earth element typically consists of warm reds and browns, which makes these rug colors one of the best suited options for any Feng Shui décor approach.
But no matter what design approach you’re going for with your home or workspace, red is known to bring about the following traits into any given space:
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Comfort
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Conversation
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Excitement
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Stimulation
Feng Shui may limit your combination limits when using red as your rug color (like painting your walls red too), but we’re confident in how red area rugs complement other earthy tones. You can always play around with decorating rules to find the perfect combination of aesthetics that work best for you and your space!
Important Considerations In Knowing If A Red Rug Is Right For You
Area rugs are always a very crucial part of interior design, which is why professional decorators will utilize rugs as floor artwork or to complement the rest of a room’s aesthetics. But with red rugs, you’ll undoubtedly achieve both of these design objectives.
Ensuring that you’re getting the right red rug for your home or office necessitates going through the following considerations:
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Size: Getting to your perfect area rug is a lot like getting that just right Goldilocks fit within your desired space. A good rule of thumb to follow with getting an adequate rug size is ensuring that the rug is at least big enough to cover a rooms entire seating area, and then a little more. You don't want your area rug to take up the whole room, but if you’re able to put the front feet of each furniture piece down on the rug then you’re on the right track!
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Pile: Pile, or thickness, is typically determined upon personal preferences. Low pile rugs tend to be a bit sturdier, while high pile rugs are softer and more luxurious. High traffic areas can many times take a toll on large area rugs, so if you’re considering a high pile rug try to make sure it’s safe from excessive foot traffic.
Tips For Choosing The Perfect Red Rug For Your Room
Material, thickness, size, design and shape are all great foundations for figuring out the perfect area rug for your desired space, but you should also consider some of the following more intricate tips throughout your rug shopping search:
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Traditional rugs provide a more Old World ambience to a room, which offers sophisticated, elegant energy. Many burgundy shades combined with antique floral prints complement travel-themed spaces and modern aesthetics.
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When planning a red or burgundy rug as a room’s focal point, try to complement the rug with a décor full of other warm, neutral hues or browns. This creates a luxurious, yet grounded ambience.
Reach Out To The Rug Source Experts Today For More Information!
Our vast collection of red and burgundy rugs is a beautiful portion of our online inventory, and we’re always more than happy to assist our clients with any questions or concerns they have about any given item within our site. If you need any assistance while making your next rug selection, we’ll be able to quickly set you up with one of our experts who can get you the information you need to find the rug that perfectly matches your existing room aesthetics and personal preferences.
Contact us online or call us at 980-422-4080 or 704-763-0979 today so we can help you find the perfect rug for your home or workspace!