Large Antique Persian Bakhtiari Rug BB5582 14'6" × 20'0" (441 × 609 cm) $120,000

An early 20th century Persian Bakhtiari antique rug, the pale celadon field with a spacious garden design of cypresses, weeping willows and flowering and leafy branches within a camel flowering branch and rosette border.

Although originally woven by nomadic peoples, the most authentic Bakhtiari rugs are made by settled communities in west central Iran southwest of Isfahan, Chahar Mahaal and Bakhtiari and parts of the provinces of Isfahan, Lorestan, and eastern Khuzestan, most notably in the town of Shahr-Kurd. Persian Bakhtiari rugs are based on a cotton foundation with a woolen weft, usually taken from the flocks of the producing tribe. This leads to an interesting diversity of Bakhtiari large area rugs which differ depending on the type of each community’s wool. The wool comes in various degrees of gloss, from dull to extremely shiny, and the resultant pile is trimmed medium to high to provide the most pleasing and tender carpets. The finest Persian rugs are distinguished by an extremely high knot density and known as ‘Bibibaff’.