Turkmen Persian Rug, Howz Design, Ivory Ground, Circa 1980s
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
Turkmen weaving is overwhelmingly a tradition of deep madder red, which is exactly what makes this carpet so unusual. Here the classic howz design of the Turkmen Sahra, known in the trade as howzi and sometimes spelt hauz, weaves chains of stepped and serrated lozenges linked through a zigzag lattice across an ivory ground in rust, celadon and ochre. The result keeps all the graphic strength of tribal Turkmen design while sitting effortlessly in contemporary rooms where a red-ground piece never could. Ivory-ground examples of this design are genuinely scarce.
It was woven by Turkmen weavers of the Gonbad-e Qabus region in Iran’s northeast around the 1980s, hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation. Our analysis measured the density at approximately 300,000 knots per square metre, a fine grade for the type, and it shows in the crisp drawing of the serrated profiles. The wool is the piece’s second distinction: soft, lustrous and almost silky in hand, closer to kork quality than tribal weaving usually offers, with full unworn pile throughout.
At 300 x 230 cm this is a generous room size, and a handmade one-of-a-kind alternative to contemporary designer rugs of similar scale at a fraction of their price. A named tribal design, finely woven, in the one palette the tradition almost never produced.
Specs: Origin: Turkmen Sahra, Gonbad-e Qabus region, Iran. Design: howz (howzi). Age: circa 1980s. Structure: hand-knotted wool pile on cotton, approx. 300,000 knots per square metre. Size: 300 x 230 cm.
SPECIFICATIONS
How it sits in your room.
300 × 230 CM (9'10" × 7'7"), DRAWN TO SCALE WITH TYPICAL AUSTRALIAN FURNITURE SIZES.
A 3-seater sofa along the long side with its front legs on the rug and 40 cm of rug past each arm, a coffee table on the rug, and two armchairs facing it.
A 180 × 90 cm table with 70 cm of rug beyond its sides and 60 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 59 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.
