From Mashad carpets to Pardeh

Mashad Carpets

It is the capital of Khorassan, in north-eastern Iran, and it is also among the most important Persian holy cities, where there is  the shrine of Imam Reza, the eighth saint of the Shiites. Mashad carpets are mostly large rugs, with classic floral designs on a red background and large medallions. Mashad carpets are  robust rugs with a rather low knotting ratio, suitable for busy environments.

Mazlagan rugs

They have a maximum size of 200×130 cm knotted with cotton structure in the area between Tehran and Hamadan. The geometrical subject is almost always the same so that makes them easily recognizable: a main frame and two secondary ones enclose the red or orange field  in which there is an azure or blue medallion and four lightning dark blue cantonal bordered by a clear line of contrast . They are not very fine rugs, but exceptionally some old collector’s items can be found.

Melas, Milas rugs

They are produced all in wool in the homonymous city which is located in south-western Turkey, often with a prayer or medallion subject, earthy colours and anyway quite warm, but with medium thickness knots.

Met-Haneh

They would be a design of the antique Caucasian Talish  elongated with the central field relatively narrow, usually as wide as the border, left undecorated.

Moj

It means wave in Persian.Types of jijim of the Qasqay nomads, with stripe designs divided into two parts by a wavy line.

Mordant

Product which serves to fix the colours onto the fibres when dyeing.

Moud, Mud

Located near Birjand there is the village of Mud, where the craft of rug weaving is rather developed. In the Moud rugs the subject, both in the Medallion and in the full-field specimens, is almost always the Herati and the quality is usually not of great executive finesse.

Nain Kashmar

Rug that resembles the Nain in designs and colours, but with weft and warp much larger, has therefore many knots and is coarse. This can ultimately only be considered as a bad copy that seeks to compete with the finest real rugs of Nain.

Nain Tabas

This is also a rug that looks like the real Nain. They are knotted in the Nain area, but being cheap they make them coarse as the Kashmar Nain and even worse.

Nain rugs, Fine or 6 Line

Nain is a small town of very ancient origins, 150 km from Isfahan,: according to tradition it was founded by one of Noah’s sons. Rug weaving, however,  began in Nain only in the ’30s, but the skill of the weavers, previously used in the production of very fine fabrics, puts Nain rugs among the finest  in the whole of Persia: the knots’ density is in fact on average  between 8000 and 10000 knots per dm2. And in fact the main characteristic of Nain rugs is given by the particular technique of knotting, said “garthy”, for which the floral subjects are highlighted by shining profiles that give them elevation. The most used colours are: blue, brown, cream and red; silk is usually white and the designs traditional: round medallions repeated on the cantonals, floral scrolls on the field, herati edges

Namakdan

Square or rectangular salt containers with a very  narrow  neck.

Nepal Design 100k Rugs

They are modern Nepalese rugs  produced with a traditional knot, but fine on cotton wefts and warps, fleece in Tibetan natural wool sometimes mixed with synthetic silk.

Nichols Decò Rugs

They are born around the 1920’s on the initiative of Walter Nichols, American merchant who moved to China and where  in 1924 he opened a manufacture of rugs particularly different from the traditional Chinese rugs. Choosing rather bright and silky wools, spun in order to have more thickness of the normal Chinese wool of the time,  brighter colours than the Chinese rugs of time and subjects suitable to the demands of the American market he created these rugs that took his name. The fleece is enough higher than traditional rugs and therefore the rugs are stiffer and have more weight. The colours are in fact rather unusual compared to Chinese tradition, ranging from emerald green to raspberry, red to plum, purple and so on.

Ningxia or Ningsia

Type of Chinese rugs of very antique origin in which usually prevails yellow and the dragon for the main subject and these rugs are knotted in the city of the same name in central and northern China.

Niriz kilim

Trade name of new Iranian production kilims that are woven with geometric entities that follow the old Qashqai kilims.

Oulmes

Area belonging to the Moroccan Middle Atlas, named after the town called Oulmes which in the Berber language means centre. The region is located south of Meknes and borders with the Zemmour region. The rugs of this region are characterized by the use of the symmetrical knot, by the fairly high fleece and the use of special colours such as brown, dark red and sometimes purple. Rugs are usually with  few drawings and very simple iconography very simple.

Palas

In Azerbaijan it is the kilim made with detachment wefts in which one can see the typical cracks.

Pamir rugs

Trade name of recent rugs hand knotted in the border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The subject is generally at empty field, with geometrical or stylized floral motifs and few colours, or only one or at most two frames, sometimes geometric (at meander), and sometimes floral. As the recently produced Ziegler, they are inspired by the rugs between the end of the 800’s and early twentieth century in the zone of Arak, Iran.

Panderma rugs

Turkish locality now called Bandirma, where until the second World War were knotted rather fine prayer rugs with pastel colours and also excellent examples Antiques completely in silk.

Pardaghi

They are so called, in Georgia, large dimensioned kilims realized with detachment wefts.

Pardakht

It ‘s the final operation of shaving the pile of the rug: the fleece will be much lower if the rug’s knot is fine  and to bring out best the subject of the drawing.

Pardeh, pardah, purdah

It means “curtain”, it would be the curtain or partition in Afghanistan and indicates the Engsi which is the curtain for the door. It is commonly used for rugs the measurement of which are 150 x 250 cm ..