Vintage Persian Kirman Carpet BB7324 11'10" × 17'10" $125,000

An early 20th century Persian Kirman (Kerman) antique Persian carpet, the rust field with an intricate trellis overall of flowering vinery and palmettes within a scrolling flowering vine border.

During the sixteenth century, Shah Abbas I reportedly gave antique Kirman rugs embroidered with gold and silver thread as tribute to the Ottoman Court. The fame of these oriental weavings rapidly spread across Western Europe. From the mid sixteenth century through the eighteenth century, the city of Kirman was celebrated for ‘vase’ carpets, a term deriving from the depiction of vase motifs in many examples woven there. By the nineteenth century, Kirman was recognized for exceptional antique oriental rugs in the best Persian tradition.

Antique Persian Kirman carpets of this period, especially the Lavar group woven in the town of Ravar, are known for their fine weave, delicate drawing, incomparable range of color, and are still much in demand today. Very advanced relative to their fellow countrymen, Kirman weavers had learned to set their looms so that the cotton warps were on two different levels.