Ivory Chantilly Persian Oriental Area Rug Wool
Ivory Chantilly Persian Oriental Area Rug Wool
Influenced by the imperial French courts, Chantilly is a fine-looking collection of hand-knotted rugs with soft Aubusson and flowered designs. A muted color palette and an over-twisted yarn give these pieces an antiquate feeling.
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Some History of Persian and Oriental Rugs
THE STORY OF THE RUG
THE handicraft which has given us Oriental rugs is very ancient. Its origin is unchronicled, but as Egypt has been the mother of so many arts, we may well believe that this one had its origin there; for on the sculptures of Egypt Beni Hassan, dating back twenty-six hundred years before Christ, are designs of carpets not unlike those in use in rug-making, while Diodorus tells us that the Egyptians spread carpets for their sacred bulls to lie upon. Ebers, in Uarda, represents the floors of the apartments of Katuti, which were furnished with royal magnificence, as covered with carpets in which " the foot sank in the thick pile "; and we know that Cleopatra reclined on couches spread with rich carpets as her barge sailed to meet Antony.
Babylonia rivaled all ancient countries in her rich textile fabrics, among them carpets made of wool with a pile like the Persian rugs of to-day. Professor Sayce, writing of the Babylonians, says of their carpets: " They were woven in bright varicolored patterns; the figures of men and animals were depicted upon them, and the bas-relief or fresco could be replaced upon the wall by a picture in tapestry."
When Cyrus extended the boundaries of Persia west of the Zagros Mountains that country fell heir to all the arts of the Euphrates Valley, and from that day to the present has maintained a foremost place in the products of the loom, giving to the world the most beautiful carpets ever made. She has been the teacher of Greek, Arab, Turk, Turkoman, Afghan, and Hindu, none of whom has ever surpassed her. The Greeks of Asia Minor, as early as Homer's time, practised the art of rug-weaving, for in the Odyssey we read: Fair thrones within, from space to space were raised Where various carpets with embroidery blazed, The work of matrons. The Arab was a ready pupil in the textile art, and through him the Moors carried a new industry into Spain, where, in Cordova and Granada, these Saracenic weavers, in a style peculiar to themselves, made most splendid carpets to adorn their palaces and mosques.
The crusaders took back to Europe a knowledge of and a desire for the luxuries of the Orient; and soon, through the Italian cities, Persian carpets found their way to all parts of Europe; and later, in the thirteenth century, through the Spanish ambassadors who preceded Eleanor of Castile, they were taken to England, where, in the royal palaces and cathedrals, they were used as wall decorations and as floor coverings. From that time on Europe has grown in her appreciation of this art, and has come to recognize and highly prize its products. In England Oriental rugs have been popular since the middle of the nineteenth century, when many were made acquainted with Eastern fabrics through the great Exhibition in London in 1851.