Within our new and custom collection we have a broad selection of
Samarkand rugs generally made in unusually large sizes. Sumptuous in nature and
appearance some of our Samarkand rugs are woven with recycled strands of wool
from early central Asian Kilims. This eco-friendly blending of the old with the
new conveys a sensual quality of the color and the weave that is unique within
the rug industry.
HISTORY
To incorporate an antique into a contemporary interior takes flair and
imagination. To assimilate an oriental antique into a western design demands
daring and wit; and to integrate an exotic oriental antique into a familiar
setting takes a designer of singular talent and with the lightest but surest of
touches. The rugs of the oasis towns of East Turkestan are incomparable. These
exotic weavings from the oases towns of Kashgar, Yarkand and Khotan in the
Chinese occupied Autonomous Region of Sikiang are collectively known as
Samarkands. Typically, they are of long and relatively narrow format with
simplistic and spacious designs rendered in glossy wool and sometimes in richly
brocaded silk and metal-thread. The unusual rugs of Central Asia display themes
from many cultures including China with fretwork borders, lotus blossoms and
cloud-bands; India with the swastika denoting infinity; Turkey with bold
reciprocal borders and carnations and Persia with floral trellis work. Traces of
Buddhist symbols abound with the use of red signifying the sun and the realm of
the senses, Samsara, with the blue medallions or roundels being the spiritual as
well as the night, and their roundness a representation of the moon. The common
placement of three medallions may represent that of a Buddha and its flanking
Bohisattvas on an altar. The use of a stylized cloud or archaic rams’ horn
pattern in many borders is a combination of the mundane and the spiritual with
the clouds being a celestial sign and the horns reflective of the earth and the
powers of darkness. Perhaps the most evocative of all of the East Turkestan
motifs is the pomegranate that signifies prosperity and fertility. Sassanian
representations, Western mythologies and Islamic geometries commingle within the
Buddhist leaning Samarkand repertoire. Woven at the crossroads of many
civilizations it is fitting that these rugs should employ such rich and varied
symbolism. Samarkand is history’s definitive melting pot and its carpets are the
ultimate expression of global multiculturalism.
TODAY
Today Samarkand is the second largest city in Uzbekistan and is mainly
inhabited by Persian-speaking Tajiks. Despite continuous political and economic
upheaval, Samarkand continues to conjure up a mirage of romantic exoticism and
has inspired many artists with appearances in the stories of One thousand and One
Nights to the journals of Marco Polo written in 1298. As an icon of 20th century
literature it has featured in Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence; Angela
Carter’s, The Kiss and Iris Murdoch’s The Nice and The Good. The city is
referenced throughout popular culture, from the 1945 Hollywood film classic It’s
a Wonderful Life to Monty Python’s Flying Circus in 1969. In 2001, UNESCO
inscribed the 2750-year-old city on the World Heritage List as Samarkand -
Crossroads of Cultures. Samarkand: a fragile yet vital pulse, woven at the
junction of several civilizations, testimony to the power of invention, even
within the confines of age old conventions. A serpentine line of beauty as
singular as the Silk Road itself. An exotic new concept has been brought forth. A
selection of Samarkand rugs in unusually large sizes, sumptuous in nature and
appearance have been woven with recycled strands of wool from early central Asian
Kilims. A sensual quality appears to the viewer in the nature of the color and
the weave because of the beauty of combining the old with the new.
