4′ x 5’10” Antique Melayer or Sennehbaf Tabriz Rug, West or Northwest Persia, Circa 1910
This is a somewhat puzzling rug, starting with the weave. Only a small number of different villages and/or cities have a high level of twist to individual knots. In Hamadan province in west Persia, rugs from the villages of Bibicabad and Enjelas show this technique; the village of Melayer might, though to a lesser degree. The most famous village for this technique is Senneh in northwest Persia’s Kurdistan province where some of the finest rugs from Persia were woven, as well as less finely knotted examples. And then there is the city of Tabriz in northwest Persia’s Azerbaijan. One of the largest cities in Persia, as well as known for innovation in the rug industry, Tabriz produced all sorts of rugs and carpets, from commercial grade carpets to very fine examples attributed to the Hadji Jalili workshop in the last quarter of the 19th century.
Tabriz merchants, given their tendency to try to cover a lot of categories, sometimes produced what are woven to a s “Sennehbaf” or Senneh weave rugs. These rugs tried to copy the twisted knot technique famous in Senneh weavings, though the designs themselves did not necessarily line up with what was likely to have been woven in Senneh itself.
This rug has virtually nothing in common with the earlier generation of Bidbicabad or Enjelas rugs, and it also does not seem to be a Senneh. It is possible it was woven in the Hamadan province village of Melayer but is more likely a “Sennehbaf Tabriz”; i.e., a rug woven in Tabriz with a Senneh-like weave, though not necessarily design or colors. The design actually most closely approximates rugs of the Fereghan Sarouk type, which would have been woven east of Melayer in Sultanabad province. However, the weave has nothing in common with Fereghan Sarouk rugs or the rugs known simply as “Fereghan” rugs, which have a different weave again.
One of our more moderately priced antique rugs and with the above said, it has a nice decorative quality to it, with a soft salmon-coral field with an ivory medallion and ivory corner spandrels with a navy border with coral guard borders.
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Price: $ 3,200 Please, call Helen or Douglas at (781) 205-9817 for other information or send us an e-mail via the Contact page.