Description
A wonderful light coloured antique Tabriz carpet, in excellent full pile condition and with soft natural dyes of ivory, pale blue, soft pinks and muted reds. During the beginning of the 20th century, workshops such as Benlian successfully reinterpreted classic artistic rugs of the 16th/17th century Safavid period and created some of the best quality carpets for the European market. A rare to find lighter antique classical carpet, using natural ivory wool for the main background colour.
At the end of the 19th century, after a prolonged period of dormancy, the Persian town of Tabriz experienced an artistic revival and successfully reasserted itself into the forefront of the rug-making world. Perhaps one of the most important figures in this reawakening of Tabriz as an important rug-making centre was the master weaver Haji Jalili, from the nearby of Marand. Haji Jalili is best known today for his incredible and unique approach to rug-making and his preference for distinctive colour palettes and design elements.
The major city of Tabriz, located near the Turkish border, is the centre of classically designed antique carpets in Northwest Persia. At the foot of the beautiful Elbruz Mountains, Tabriz has a noteworthy history, both as the Persian market centre most linked geographically to European and Western commerce, and as the source of the most venerated weavings: the inspired carpets of the Shah Abbas period during the 15th and 16th centuries.
