De Pashmina a Savonnerie

Pashmina or Pashm

This is the wool that is obtained from the Himalayan goat, in the West called cashmere. It is called so even that long fibre wool obtained from the spring shearing of young animals

Patchwork kilim of Turkey

It’s the new fashion to realize rugs in kilim sewing together about 50×50 pieces of old kilim from various sources, mostly artificially aged, putting a cotton lining on the back for support. They make them in Turkey, Pakistan, India, etc. Personally I think they are not quality rugs, but only a trend of bad taste and poor durability.

Patchwork leather rugs

It is a patchwork production that allows to make a rug joining squares of skin of various dimensions, usually 10×10 and 20×20 cm, taking care for the chromatic effect in the composition of the various colours. At the sides one applies a border in skin and finally it is lined, slightly padded, in the underlying part to get a more refined rug finish. The result is a very good quality rug, very warm, suitable for many classical and modern furnishings level. For ordinary maintenance we recommend using a good vacuum cleaner (not rug-beater !!) very gently and at least every three days.

Petag

Acronym of the German company Persische Teppich Aktiengesellschaft which towards the late nineteenth century opened the branch in Tabriz to produce fine rugs on commission for Europe.

Plain weaving

It is referred to the manufacture of Kilims in a finer or less fine way in the different techniques.

Qashqai kilim

They are woven by nomads of Turkish strain. Their production includes Kilim, Mafrash, bags, etc. ; on our site you can find old and antique pieces.

Qashqai rugs

They can be considered among the most archaic forms of Persian textile art. They are nomadic populations of Turkish strain originating in Azerbaijan whose colourful rugs, knotted wool on wool, are characterized by KHARCHANGHI medallion decorations with minute geometrical designs in the field. The thickness of the rugs is 5-6 mm. Their production also includes KILIM, MAFRASH and GABBEH and listed on our site you can see a remarkable assortment of old, antique, fabulous and very hard to find pieces.

Raj, Radj, Ghireh, Ghereh, Punzeh

Persian unit of measure corresponding to about 7 cm, used in Azerbaijan to define the rug’s fineness, for example the expression 40, 50, 60, or 70. raj radj in Tabriz rugs  means the number of warps present in a ghireh in width.

Rehama

Very large area to the north-east of Marrakesh which is characterized by the use of the goat hair’s  warp and red / orange for the rug’s background. The iconographies are typical of Berber tribes: the lozenge, the rivers’ path, anthropomorphic symbols. The headers are usually made with quite large kilims  and there are, a rarity for Berber rug, the fringes on both sides.

Rubia tinctorum or Madder

Common plant throughout the East from whose roots we get the Alizarin to get a red dye for dyeing.

Ru-asbi

Persian horse blanket.

Ru-olaghi

Persian kilim blanket destined to donkeys.

Ru-zini

Also called ru-palani it is a saddle blanket.

Rudbar rugs

They are produced in the locality by the same name near Tafresh, usually stylized floral knotted with a good quality of wool and cotton structure, but of modest executive level, attractive colours, often using the pink in the field.

S-ply

English word to indicate that thecomposite thread, used for the weave, thewarp or the fleece has been turned clockwise.

Saff, Saph, Saf

A 200-250 cm x 70 Turkish and Western Turkestan runner  with different niches side by side.

Salatchak

Name of Turkmen rugs with very blunt two top corners. Some say that they are prayer rugs, other for a cradle.

Samarcanda rugs

It is the name of the place of Uzbekistan, once an important trading center on the Silk Road, where they sold rugs, especially those knotted in Turkestan and for that reason were called erroneously Samarkand. For some time in China rugs are woven rugs with subjects which recall  somehow the ancient Khotan and are called Samarkand, but they are of little value and quality.

Sarab, Serab Antique

province located  in the eastern Iranian Azarbaijan at 640 km from Tehran, famous for the mountain Sabalan, the third highest in Iran. The most frequent subjects of Sarab rugs are geometrical and the colours used are antique pink and beige brown, blue, azure.

Saruk: dal classico, Farahan, americano e Mohajeran Saruk

Ancient village about forty kilometers north of Sultanabad, which became famous for the rugs tailor made for European importers mainly for the American market at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They are floral rugs with a solid structure made of cotton, rather elegant and pleasing in their colours, usually deep salmon backgrounds and flowers in blue-azure and vice versa, which had considerable success in that period among the types of rugs that arrived in the West and the United States so as to be called » American Saruks.» Similar rugs, but less refined, were knotted at Moshkabad and Mahal. While q the early ‘900’s Saruk Mohajerani is of excellent quality.

Saveh kilim

Artifacts weaved in the Iranian city of the region of Markazi where tribal rugs and kilims are knotted. Among the old productions you can still find some really nice  kilim specimens, with curved and detached weft.

Savonnerie rugs

Rugs that have floral subjects and were woven in French manufacturing plants in the ‘600’s, knotted with the turkish knot or with the tapestries’ technique. Today similar reproductions are made in China and India and they are called Savonnerie rugs still very strong with the subject adapted to current tastes.