Over recent years distressed and worn antique carpets over 100 years old such as this piece are increasingly popular, working beautifully under dining tables or in a warm study or drawing room. Their charm and character add so much to a room, with lovely natural faded dyes.
Condition wise this Heriz carpet is worn, with low areas of pile scattered across the carpet, but crucially there are no holes or structural damage. If it was in perfect or excellent order it would be over double the price, as good condition Heriz carpets especially in rare square sizes are very hard to find. Hand-washed by ourselves it is ready to be used. We also have strong underlay. All our underlay is included in the price and we will happily deliver it and lay it for you too, as we travel the length and breadth of the UK showing carpets in situ.
Request a home visit from us and we will with pleasure visit your home to show you this distressed antique Heriz carpet in-situ. This way you can view it with your furniture and interior making sure you have made the right choice. A free no obligation service we have offered for over 30 years.
Like carpets woven in Heriz, Persia, Serapi carpets have a multiple concentric medallion format that emits jutting branches or vines ending in large stylised palmettes, leaves, or flowers, with framing corner pieces at the periphery of the field. The main border is usually some variant of the flower and vine scroll pattern. In terms of design, what distinguishes Serapis from Heriz carpets is once again the more open bold designs. The articulation of the medallions is crisper, more finely linear, and open, the highest grade in terms of weave, and very probably the oldest type in terms of age.
Heriz carpets are generally coarser carpets than Serapi with as few as 30 knots per square inch. They also have a deeply depressed warp structure with a markedly ribbed back surface. Since the early twentieth century they have come to make use of light blue cotton wefting. Serapis, in contrast, have a higher knot count, sometimes attaining 80 knots per square inch. Their backs are relatively flat, and they have ivory cotton wefting. Generally they have a softer handle than Heriz, and they are thinner. On the whole, it appears that what we call Serapi carpets are simply the oldest, most well-designed, and finely woven Heriz carpets.