Guide to Kashan Rugs & Carpets
WoolKashan is surrounded by desert and marginal land that does not provide a source of good wool. From roughly 1890 to 1930 the main source of wool was Manchester UK. That wool was fine soft garment wool that was processed in Manchester from Merino sheep. After 1930 the primary source of wool has been Sabzavar.
Style and Quality in Kashan Rugs.Kashan rugs are the most conservative of all Persian Carpet. They are not nearly as adventurous as Qum or as fine as Isfahan rugs but Kashan maintains a consistent look. Not all the same but confined to certain bounds. Quality is a different matter. Often good sometimes great Kashan rugs are home production not workshop rugs. You can expect to find three distinct grades of Kashan from the high-end ultra fine examples to the Bazaar quality.
Structure:Kashan Rug, Kashan proper, the surrounding area and Eastern Iran. Size: All sizes made up to about 10 by 13 feet are common. Structure: Asymmetrical knot open to the left. 100 to 250 kpsi with up to 400 knots per square inch in smaller sizes and silks. Yarn Spin: Z. Warp: Cotton Weft: 2 shots cotton. First shot is thicker and straight and the second is thinner and sinuous. Deeply depressed knots with a warp offset of 85 to 90 degrees. Pile: 2 wool singles. Ends: Overhand knots with warp fringe. Selvages: 1 cord plain wool. Handle: Light - medium. Further Notes:Similar Rugs
Related examples sorted by approximate age:
Links: Mohtashem Kashan sorted by approximate age:
A Kashan lustre-decorated star-form pottery tile 13th c. Sotheby's Lot 52. A Kashan lustre-decorated star-form pottery tile 13th c. Sotheby's lot 49
Books & Articles - Sources on Kashan Rugs:
Kashan Links:No set of rules is absolute. I am building these guides as an attribution guide to help when I am working with rugs.
In the article Seven Hundred Years of Oriental Carpets the German scholar Kurt Erdmann lays out the rugs assigned to the group called "The Small Silk Carpets of Kashan". It fails to give any reason or justification for the attribution to Kashan. Erdmann, Kurt. Seven Hundred Years of Oriental Carpets pages 61 - 65 In Bode and Kuhnel plate 108 they show one of the small silk group the pictorial one from the Altman collection now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They write that it is "certainly originated on the court looms of Kashan". They also attribute the rug to the sixteenth century. Bode, Wilhelm Von. and Kuhnel, Ernst. Antique Rugs From The Near East. They fail to mention that there is not one shred of evidence to support court looms in Kashan in the sixteenth century. There is some evidence that Kashan produced village carpets in the seventeenth century. Helfgott, L.M. Ties That Bind page 71.- 72. Eduord Reichart found workshops producing silk carpets in Kashan in the early 1860s. These shops produced carpets for the Qajar court. Helfgott, L.M. Ties That Bind page 211. After 1873 carpet production increased in Kashan. Helfgott, L.M. Ties That Bind page 136. Kashan became a major carpet center 1870 - 1914. Helfgott, L.M. Ties That Bind page 198. In the 1890s Ziegler expanded to Tabriz and Kashan. Helfgott, L.M. Ties That Bind page 198. Kashan rugs are the best of the Persian rugs with the "closest and finest woven texture and usually have a concentric medallion pattern. Hawley, Walter A. Oriental Rugs Antique and Modern.1913 pages 285 - 286 Kashan rugs have a "short velvety nap; dark rich colours; fields of graceful foliated stalks and floral forms resting on concentric medallions" with a "fine firm texture of weave" "running Latchhook" guards and blue wefts.Hawley, Walter A. Oriental Rugs Antique and Modern.1913 pages 288 Kashan rugs were made in a "Work house" system by 1913 Hawley, Walter A. Oriental Rugs Antique and Modern.1913 pages 306. Older Kashan rugs generally range from 200 to 250 kpsi. Ford P.R.J. Oriental Carpet Design page 295. Ford P.R.J. Oriental Carpet Design For Further Reading:
Thanks and best wishes, l Copyright Barry
O'Connell 2004 - 2007. |
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