Qashqai Fine Abstract Persian Gabbeh Rug, c. 1980s

A vintage Qashqai Persian gabbeh rug, hand-knotted in the 1980s in soft handspun wool with natural dyes, with a grid of small windows in colour-blocked panels.

The field has no border. Instead it is divided into panels of small rectangles, like rows of lit windows: apricot on terracotta across most of the rug, ivory on dusty blue and on camel down one side, deep red on grey in one corner, and brown on ivory lower down. A diagonal and a cranked black line cut the panels apart, and each rectangle is drawn by hand, a little uneven, so the grid never looks mechanical.

The wool is unusually soft and silky, and the natural dyes move gently within each panel where the weaver changed to a new batch of yarn. It is woven finer than most gabbehs, which keeps such small shapes crisp, yet it folds and drapes as easily as a bed sheet.

Gabbehs are the thick-piled rugs the Qashqai of Fars have long woven for their own floors. In the 1980s weavers in Fars took the gabbeh in a new, abstract direction, and this rug belongs to that moment: a traditional Qashqai weave carrying a design that sits easily in a contemporary interior.

It is in as-new condition: the pile is full and even across the whole rug, the edges and ends are the ones it was woven with, and it has never needed repair.

At 150 by 200cm it suits a living room, a study or the foot of a bed. View it in our Richmond gallery, or explore more contemporary Persian rugs.