Antique Bakhtiari Faradonbeh Five Medallion Persian Rug, 1920–1940
A viewing is a request, not a booking: we write back within 24 hours to confirm a time, in open hours or out of them. No account needed.
ABOUT THIS PIECE
An antique Bakhtiari Persian rug from the Faradonbeh villages of Chahar Mahal, hand-knotted in wool on cotton between 1920 and 1940, with five medallions on a madder field.
Five stepped medallions in navy and ivory run the length of a deep red field, and the ground between them is filled edge to edge with flowering sprigs and rosettes, so that the field reads as a garden with the medallions set into it. A border of rosettes on navy holds the whole. Bakhtiari weavers usually draw one medallion or a lattice; five is unusual in the Faradonbeh group, and it has been drawn here with real precision.
The colour is the Alvan palette, the seven colours the best Chahar Mahal weavers worked in: madder red, two indigo blues, a green laid over yellow, plant yellow, warm ivory and walnut brown. All are natural and all of them drift softly across the rug, the tonal movement of small hand-dyed lots. The salmon in the flowers is a weak madder lot, which is what it should be.
Turn it over and the structure is the other surprise. It is single-wefted, with blue-dyed cotton wefts and a moderate warp depression, where the Bakhtiari norm is a heavy double weft. Single wefting is the older practice in these villages and the rarer one to find, and it gives a rug of this size a supple handle it rarely has and a lighter fall on the floor.
The pile is full and even across the whole rug, the selvedges are the ones it was woven with, the ends have been resecured, and it has never needed repair.
At 367 by 270cm it is a full room size for a living or dining room. View it in our Richmond gallery, or explore more antique and vintage Persian rugs.
SPECIFICATIONS
How it sits in your room.
367 × 270 CM (12' × 8'10"), DRAWN TO SCALE WITH TYPICAL AUSTRALIAN FURNITURE SIZES.
A 4-seater sofa along the long side with its front legs on the rug and 54 cm of rug past each arm, a coffee table on the rug, and two armchairs facing it.
A 240 × 100 cm table with 85 cm of rug beyond its sides and 64 cm past its ends, so the chairs stay on the rug when they are pulled out.
Under the lower part of a king bed with 92 cm of rug showing on each side, so your feet land on it either side of the bed.
Measure the room, or just the area the rug should cover, and we will draw this rug in it to scale.
