Old Chinese Rug | 404 x 296 cm | Nr. 2684

Qom in pure silk, multicoloured with border and panel pattern

Origin	Persia
Dimensions	155 cm x 105 cm (= 1.6275 m²)
Construction	hand-knotted
Material	Pile: pure silk Weft & Warp: pure silk
knots per m²2	420.000
Pile height	5mm
Year of manufacture	1940
Colour	bright colours
Edition	one-of-a-kind piece

 

Origin

Qom is a relatively young provenance for Persian rugs. The city of Qom (also Ghom, Gom, Ghoum, Goum) lies in the centre of Iran, about 100 km south of the capital Tehran. Because there was no long knotting tradition in Qom to build on, patterns were and still are adopted from other weaving regions. Over time, however, a style of its own has grown out of this. Today the silk rugs from Qom are among the most famous and finest rugs in the world. The field of rugs from Qom often has a light ground decorated with finely drawn medallion patterns or with continuous boteh or vase designs.

 

Pattern

The compartment pattern of this Qom recalls a lushly planted garden with geometrically laid-out beds, each framed on its own. This design is so characteristic that rugs with a compartment pattern are also known as garden rugs. The individual compartments of this Qom's pattern each show different motifs, yet follow a strictly symmetrical, rectangular arrangement.

There is a reason for this: large parts of Persia and many other regions of the Middle and Near East are desert- or steppe-like arid areas, where so-called irrigation horticulture is widely practised. Water is channelled to the beds through small irrigation canals. The panel pattern renders this irrigation system in heavily simplified form. Because of the dryness in these regions, blooming and verdant gardens are also something quite special. The panel pattern therefore probably goes back to the wish to bring a little garden – and with it a small paradise – into the home. In the Koran the term garden, as the earthly counterpart to paradise – a word of Old Persian origin, incidentally – appears very frequently.

Overall, the rug glows in bright colours.

 

Condition

You aren't the first to take a liking to this Qom. It had owners before you who valued and used it. It was hand-knotted around 1940. We have cleaned it thoroughly and restored it with care. That is why it is – despite its age – in very good condition.

 

Material

The silk of this Qom's pile lets the colours of the pattern shine in different facets, depending on how the light falls. It makes this Qom a real jewel and gives the room a cosy yet very elegant, high-quality atmosphere. Silk is obtained by hand from the cocoons of the silk moth. Because the individual silk filaments are extremely long, very fine yarns can be spun that are light in weight and still tear-resistant. Fine yarn allows smaller knots to be tied and therefore finer patterns to be created. That is why the world's finest rugs are hand-knotted from pure silk. In this Qom even the foundation is made of pure silk. The thin yet hard-wearing material of the weft and warp threads allows a particularly fine knotting and therefore a particularly fine pattern.