Antique Bakhtiari | 301 x 176 cm | Nr. Z-1207

Antique Bakhtiari

Delivery time	2 days
Origin	Persia
Dimensions	301 cm x 176 cm (= 5.3 m²)
Construction	hand-knotted
Material	Pile: wool (hand-spun, natural dyes)
knots	300.000
Condition	pre-owned, cleaned & partially restored
Edition	one-of-a-kind piece

Origin

The Bakhtiari (also Bachtiari) are an ancient, widely branching people living in south-western Iran. The collective name for their rugs is Bakhtiar or Bakhtiari, where the ‘i’ corresponds to our preposition ‘of’. Bakhtiari rugs – the rugs of the Bakhtiari – take in numerous sub-provenances with a range of pattern types. For all this breadth, Bakhtiar rugs resemble one another in their colour compositions, in their various handcrafted techniques and in their line, which is always floral.

Bakhtiari rugs are made mainly with natural dyes, which feel pleasant despite their intensity and take on a beautiful patina over the years. Frequently used colours are brown for the outlines, plus red, bottle green, yellow and white as a highlight that gives the rug its likeable character.

This Antique Bakhtiari is a collector's piece. It is around 96 years old, and that alone makes it a truly special piece. Antique rugs such as this Antique Bakhtiari are as sought after as ever and fetch top prices at renowned auction houses.

Material

The technique used to prepare the materials for the pile of this Antique Bakhtiari is more than 200 years old. The wool was dyed with natural dyes and spun by hand. Dyeing with natural or plant 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 is not too pale, it takes as much as two kilograms of weld per kilo of wool. Spinning the wool is time-consuming and labour-intensive too. On top of that, 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 oil content. Wool that has been dyed with natural colours and spun by hand creates fascinating, shimmering 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 Antique Bakhtiari are made of cotton. This versatile material is tear-resistant and pliable, which makes it particularly well suited to a hard-wearing foundation.

Condition

This Antique Bakhtiari has a history. It was knotted in around 96. It has been thoroughly cleaned and is in good, though only partly restored, condition. The pile is worn in places. The fringes could do with a repair. We have not fully restored this Antique Bakhtiari, because we feel it has a special presence just as it is. If that is what you would like, we will of course carry on restoring the rug for you. We can bring almost any rug back to near-perfect condition.