Early 20th Century Persian Bakhtiari Handmade Wool Rug in Blue, Red, Camel BB7288 11'7" × 19'9" $50,000

An early 20th century Persian Bakhtiari rug, the dark blue field with a highly-controlled garden design of lush weeping willows, cypresses and other trees with camel abstract floral motif spandrels within a sand abstract flowerhead and vinery trellis border.

The Bakhtiari, a colorful nomadic tribe from South Central Persia, migrates in summer with their herds from the plains near the Persian Gulf on the east of the Zagros Mountains, to the more mountainous pastures in the west, and then back again in winter. To the east of the Zagros range lies Chahar Mahal, the area where the bulk of antique Persian Bakhtiar rugs and carpets were produced. Here, the weavers constitute a mixture of Kurds, Lurs, Armenians and even Turkmen tribes people. In the early nineteenth century, some of the Bakhtiari leaders settled in the Chahar Mahal region, where their relative wealth gave them the status of ‘gentry’ thus the Bakhtiari name was appended to the region and its substantial carpet and antique rug production.

These distinctive antique Qajar carpets are among the boldest and most dynamic of antique Persian rugs, and are distinguished by the liberal use of blue-black or charcoal, both as an outline of the individual design elements, or as the field color.