Antique Abadeh | 79 x 62 cm | Nr. 8942

All-over patterned antique Abadeh, rust red with border

Origin	Persia
Dimensions	79 cm x 62 cm (= 0.49 m²)
Construction	hand-knotted
Material	Pile: wool (hand-spun, natural dyes) Weft & Warp: cotton
knots per m²2	180.000
Pile height	4mm
Year of manufacture	1910
Colour	Rust red, Dark blue
Edition	one-of-a-kind piece

Origin

This rug was hand-knotted with the Persian knot in the small town of Abadeh and the surrounding villages. Abadeh lies between Isfahan and Shiraz. The brick-red colouring is typical of Abadeh rugs. This antique Abadeh is a collector's piece. It is around 110 years old, and that alone makes it a truly special piece. Antique rugs like this Abadeh are as sought after as ever and fetch top prices at renowned auction houses. The pattern is most likely an Afshari/Aderbey. The Turkish knot suggests that Aderbey is the province this piece comes from.

Pattern

The repeating elements of this Abadeh rug have no particular centre. The recurring repeat pattern feels calming without ever being dull. Rugs with a repeat pattern are also described as all-over patterned.

The lush floral motifs of this Abadeh are elegant and full of variety. The graceful plant symbols, depicting blossoms, leaves and branches, are artfully intertwined.

The edge of the rug is framed by a decorative border. The border forms a beautiful contrast with the centre.

The background of this Abadeh is beige. Rust red and dark blue also dominate the overall impression. The border is worked in rust red, dark blue and dark brown.

Condition

This Abadeh already had admirers before you. It was hand-knotted around 1910. It has been thoroughly cleaned and is in good, though only partially restored, condition. The fringes have been secured. Overall, the pile is heavily worn in places. The edges in particular need attention. We have not fully restored this Abadeh because we feel it has a special charm exactly as it is. If that is what you would like, we will of course be happy to carry on restoring the rug for you. We can bring almost any rug back to near-perfect condition.

Material

The technique used to make the materials for this Abadeh's pile is more than 200 years old. The wool was dyed with natural dyes and spun by hand. Dyeing with natural or plant-based dyes is more complicated, more expensive and more time-consuming than dyeing with chemical colours. For a luminous red, for example, you need around one kilo of ground madder root as dyestuff per kilo of wool. For a strong yellow that isn't too pale, it even takes two kilograms of weld per kilo of wool. Spinning the wool is just as time-consuming and labour-intensive. What is more, fewer and fewer people still know how to spin wool by hand.

But the effort is worth it: dyeing with natural colours allows the high-quality wool to keep its natural oils. Wool dyed with natural colours and spun by hand creates fascinating, shifting patterns. The charm of hand-spun wool, with its slight irregularities and natural shades, comes into its own as a contrast in modern interiors, but equally in rooms furnished in a more traditional or country style. The weft and warp threads of this Abadeh are made of cotton. This versatile material is tear-resistant and elastic, which makes it particularly well suited to a hard-wearing foundation.