Antique Hamadan | 414 x 117 cm | Nr. 9234

Antique Hamadan

Delivery time	2 days
Origin	Persia
Dimensions	414 cm x 117 cm (= 4.84 m²)
Construction	hand-knotted
Material	Pile: wool (hand-spun, natural dyes) Weft & Warp: wool
knots	240.000
Year of manufacture	1865
Condition	pre-owned, but in very good condition (cleaned & restored)
Edition	one-of-a-kind piece

Origin

Hamadan (also Hamedan) rugs are knotted in the area around the city of Hamadan in north-western Iran. Hamadan is one of the oldest cities in Persia and lies amid a well-watered fruit-growing region on the banks of the Qareh, at the foot of the Zagros foothills. Rug knotting has a centuries-old tradition in this region. Hamedan is a collective name, for village and nomad rugs from many surrounding places come onto the market in Hamedan. What is typical of rugs from the Hamadan region is that they are knotted with a single weft using the Turkish knot. That is to say, one weft thread is inserted after every row of knots. Persian rugs are normally knotted with two or three wefts.

This Antique Hamadan is a collector's piece. It is around 161 years old, and that alone makes it a truly special piece. Antique rugs such as this Antique Hamadan are still greatly sought after and fetch top prices at renowned auction houses.

Material

The technique used to make the materials for the pile of this Antique Hamadan 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, you even need two kilograms of the dyestuff dyer's weld per kilo of wool. Spinning the wool is time- and labour-intensive too. What is more, fewer and fewer people still master spinning 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 foundation (weft and warp threads) of this Antique Hamadan is made of new wool.

Condition

You are not the first to take a liking to this Antique Hamadan. It has had owners before you who valued and used it. It was knotted around 1865. We have cleaned it thoroughly and restored it with great care. Despite its age, it is therefore in very good condition.