Excellent Persian Area Rug Wool Circa 1950

Design: Persian

The Persian carpet is also known as Iranian carpet, is a heavy textile made for a wide variety of utilitarian and symbolic purposes and produced in Iran (historically known as Persia), for home use, local sale, and export. Carpet weaving is an essential part of Persian culture and Iranian art. Within the group of Oriental rugs produced by the countries of the "rug belt", the Persian carpet stands out by the variety and elaborateness of its manifold designs.

Persian carpets and rugs of various types were woven in parallel by nomadic tribes, in village and town workshops, and by royal court manufactories alike. As such, they represent miscellaneous, simultaneous lines of tradition, and reflect the history of Iran and its various peoples. The carpets woven in the Safavid court manufactories of Isfahan during the sixteenth century are famous for their elaborate colors and artistic design and are treasured in museums and private collections all over the world today. Their patterns and designs have set an artistic tradition for court manufactories which was kept alive during the entire duration of the Persian Empire up to the last royal dynasty of Iran.

There was a small production of finely woven rugs and carpets in traditional Persian styles in the capital city of Tehran in the Interwar Period. This scatters with a navy stepped and lobed, flat-topped niche design shows denizens of the air, water, and land under smooth cypresses and beneath a luxuriantly flowering vase. The stem continues upward, with perching birds, cordiform leaves and Various petal pamettes. Red spandrels with arabesques and a navy border with densely drawn floral sprays.