Kerman
Kerman carpets as they should properly be called the Southern Persian city in which they are made, have topped the popularity charts for Persian carpets for decades. Their success is due to their constituting a richer variant of the Aubusson pattern. Glowing colors instead of anaemic, cascades of flowers instead of garlands and medallions consisting of only a few flowers.

Kerman was not subject to the same commercial stimulus as other towns with a more favorable position. It lay some months by carvan from the contemporary trade centres of Constantinople and Tabriz, and its small- scale carpet production was not thought important enough to warrant a visit. Early this century, when the town began to be discovered by foreign buyers, There were only a few carpets available, but these all the more magnificent. Their manufacture was soon organized, and the production curve rocketed.

During the time that followed, the markers luxuriated in the composition of new patterns. The shawl pattern, large "Mir i botah drawn with points and resembling an enormous filigree work. The panel pattern, a sort of garden pattern with panels decorated in various ways and inscriptions along the pathways between the fiowerbeds . Ashraf-- Bid i majnun , moondaisies and weeping willows that give an harmonic impression in spite of the overpatterning. The Mihrab carpet, with a prayer niche showing an Indian influence, and a field filled with vases, flowers and sometimes a Tree of Life. "Shekarghan'- a hunging theme, which is otherwise rare on long- cut carpets. "Mdborak boshad'. wedding carpets with inwoven best wishes for the newly married couple, and ordered perhaps by the bride's parents while she was still in the cradle.

Not until the 30's was the most successful carpets of all produced. This has a border chock full of flowers, and an oblong medallion consisting entirely of roses. It was from this taht the Chubkoranin later developed, the Koran cover pattern with a large monochrome panel and more strictly limited border, but as filled with roses as its predecessor.

The wool around Kerman is outstanding, with an extremely high fat content. This gives the carpets a very bright lustre. The pile is cut half- long. The warp and weft are of cotton. Turkish knots. The dyes are for the most part synthetic, but of high quality.

The prices of Kerman carpets have kept pace with the cost of living in Iran. To mect the demand of customers for cheaper products, carpets are also made with a simplified pattern, far fewer knots, dryer wool yarn and inferior dyes.

History | Designs | Regions | Artists | Glossary

Gallery | Merchants | STORE

 ©2000-2008  Ziba Rayaneh

Best view with IE 5 or later at 800*600 resolution
Last Update  16 May, 2008