These fine carpets, just like Amritzar, were produced in India as a result of the rising demand for crafted goods in Europe in the mid-nineteenth century. As more Europeans, in particular the British, went to India to find a fortune, more Indian crafts were brought back to Europe.

Agra carpets are frequently square in dimension, which is rather atypical of carpets from the Orient. Most Agra pieces have interesting allover designs representative of the region of their creation. However, some designs contain predominately Persian designs with Indian influences. These carpets are renowned for the tightness of their weave, and when combined with the particularly heavy wefts used give the finished product the great weight and significant strength for which it is celebrated.

The classic Aubusson's purpose was to bring the outdoors inside, in effect becoming tapestries for the floor.  As with most handmade carpets, Aubussons get name from the areas surrounding where they are produced.In this case, the French town of Aubusson. This area became an established weaving center in the 18^th century using a flat weave technique to produce lush curvilinear designs that emulated the surrounding countryside.

The Bakhtiyari tribe lived primarily in the western part of Iran just north of the Persian Gulf. Roughly 100,000 of the 500,000 members of the tribe still live a migratory lifestyle grouped in herding units. Their nomadic history goes back to the 14^th century and the Bakhtiyari people have a strong sense of tribal identity.

Bakhtiyari carpets can often be traced back to the Kahn or arisotcrat who commissioned the piece by the inscriptions woven into the rug. This can also help in dating the age of the piece.

The non-nomadic families also weave carpets and often have rooms specially built in their homes solely for the purpose of weaving carpets. It can take up to year to weave a large size rug.

The Bakhtiyari - Chahar Mahal carpets are village rugs with distinctive designs, materials, and structural elements. The “Garden” rug has as design based on the 17^th and 18^th century Persian gardens, and became very highly regarded during the last century. Coloring in these pieces often shows more variety than we find in nomadic pieces. Village weavers had the advantage of professional dyers at their disposal. The light blue, green and orange tones that you find in village pieces can rarely be found in nomadic pieces. The vegetable dyes that these professional dyers used enable a wide variety of colors with the recipes for certain colors being closely guarded family secrets passed from one generation to the next.

The countries of Eastern Europe have long had an interest in, and the ability, to create magical works with the needle. Hence, Bessarabian carpets contain beautiful folk embroidery representing the culture and skills of each village weaver.

Many Bessarabians, present a general theme of realistic flowers in bright primary colors on a traditionally dark background. However, Bessarabian kilims contain very large floral motifs on a traditionally black field. In the end, black fields predominate, although lighter carpets have been made. The color palette generally used for the patterns is of warm pastel shades. The result is an extraordinary carpet that presents elegance and uncontrived sophistication.

Bijar carpets are woven in the northwestern part of Persia, about 150 miles from Tabriz. This is an area populated primarily by the Kurdish people and has been a major weaving area for hundreds of years. Many of the finest oversize Bijar carpets have been woven for and commissioned but the European markets, while the smaller pieces, in general, were woven by families in the surrounding countryside. Renowned for their artistry and fine craftsmanship, older pre 20^th century Bijar carpets can often be distinguished by their wool foundations. Each knot is pounded down as it is tied, thus tightening it around the foundation, making for a product that can withstand long term wear. There is a wide range of designs and colors in these carpets from tribal and whimsical to elegant and floral.

Dorosh (Mashad) can be found in the province of Khorassan in the eastern part of Persia and has for centuries had an extensive carpet manufacturing industry.

Antique Dorosh carpets, in general, are large in size and are known for the softness of their wool as they are woven with the very fine quality wool that is available locally. Traditional in design, they are often times woven with a large and distinctive center medallion and in a wide variation of color. Dorosh are also among the Persian carpets with tight and fine knot counts, enabling the weavers to form clean and clear designs on the finished product.

During the late 19^th and early 20^{th</sup centuries, Fereghan carpets constituted some of the most impressive examples of classical Persian weaving. Woven in West Central Persia, Fereghan carpets generally have a blend of geometric influences from the surrounding villages but with a more curvilinear and refined design.} Often artistically inspired, the Fereghan carpets which were woven between ninety and one hundred fifty years ago are considered to be among the finest examples of Persian weaving. High quality wool, uncompromising workmanship, sublime color palette, and durable construction continue to make Fereghan carpets the choice of those considering the purchase of fine antique carpets.

Within the Western Persian area of Hamaden, is a nomadic region with a cottage industry of weaving. Hamaden carpets are often woven with a camel colored field and a geometric row of medallions running the length of the field, stylized figures of animals such as camels and llamas, and folk figures dressed in the decorative clothing of the region.

The finer woven Hamaden carpets are referred to as Serab carpets. These contain similar elements of the Camel Hamaden, but the weave tends to give the Serab more life and collectibility. The vast majority of the Hamaden and Serab carpets woven were small carpets or runners, for these fit in the Nomad’s saddlebags, and could be transported from village to village much easier.

Heriz carpets are made in North Western Iran in an area with much Caucasian influence from Russia, and the carpets produced in this area reflect this. The designs have a much more stylized geometric feeling as opposed to the opulent floral feeling of the traditional city carpets from Persia. The city of Heriz has cottage workshops where large rugs with stylized floral designs utilizing straight lines are woven. Most commonly, these rugs have a rich red field. Later, the rugs that were produced for the commercial market in the 20^th century have longer pile and a coarser weave.

Antique Heriz carpets are known as Serapi. The 19^th century designs include highly stylized center medallion carpets as well as the more rare all over design carpets with no medallion. Serapi have a lower and tighter weave than do the newer Heriz carpets. The colors in old carpets have mellowed and softened whereas Heriz carpets have a bold and vivid palette.

During the reign of Shah Abbas I from 1587-1628 Persian carpet production flourished with the silk and gold thread carpets epitomizing the wealth and opulent taste of the Persian court. The taste fore these luxurious carpets was not limited to Abbas and his courtiers. Through the established ambassadorial and trade routes, these fine carpets were introduced to the West, where they found great favor with Baroque nobility of the 17^th century Europe. The shahs production at Isphahan and Kashan was ample enough to supply the demands of both the Persian Court and European nobility. In fact, the King of Poland, at the time of Louis XV. Today there are little more than 230 “Polonaise” examples accounted for under reign of Abbas I. The beauty of the great Polonaise and Kashan carpets is in the plane of designs and changes in color tonality to compromise the pattern, as opposed to the linear outline and form of the earlier pieces. As in both the Kashan and the Polonaise designs, some carpets feature quatrefoil center medallions set amid a fusion of a soft palate of color. Both carpets maintained some of the finest work in there borders, acting as if to frame the soft field, as the frame to a world-class painting. The continuation of the creation of these great carpets continued to flourish through the 19^th century. The finest of the Kashan’s woven in the 19^th century are names the Moteshan Kashan carpets. The Kashan’s, woven like silk and sheared very low to soften the colors, and the Polonaise exhibited at the Paris Exhibition of 1878, bearing the Polish crest, attributing to it’s name, “The Polonaise”, remain as two of the greatest creations in the world of carpets.

Khoton, a remote Oasis lying more than 1,000 miles to the east of Samarkand, is an area known for weaving wonderfully graphic and colorful carpets for more than 500 years. These carpets have been prized by collectors for many years and can be seen in photographs of the Paris apartment of Adolph Loos, the famous architect in 1903, and accredited in the April 1999 issue of Architectural Digest special issue “100 Years Of Design.” In all of the Khoton designs, the rigid lines of the geometric field tend to be softened by Chinese and even some Persian influence. This influence is also responsible for the inclusion of floral and symbolic elements in many designs. Many of the carpets carry one, two, or three medallions with gentle outlines often containing several highly stylized cloud forms developed by the Chinese. Another popular design had no medallions and an overall field of stylized pomegranates. The color palettes of these carpets range from pale platinum tones to a strong red ground colors. The remoteness of the area in which these carpets are woven lends to the unusual small oblong sizes. This allows for the carpets to be transported in camel bags to the trade market in Samarkand, where the closest train station was located, to transfer these valuable small carpets to the European trade market. These Khoton carpets remain as collectable and desirable today as they were 100 years ago. The Khoton carpet dates from the 17^th century and yet more than one hundred years earlier in a remote oasis far to the north of Samarkand, master weavers were creating highly unusual and rare carpets in Kashgar. These weavers used mixed metal in silver and bronze to weave these carpets, for it was readily available at this time. To this they added the rare vegetable dyed silks of this area in highlights to enhance the beauty of these carpets. Today, it is very rare to procure a carpet that is too hundred and seventy years old and would be a jewel addition to any carpet collection.

The ancient city of Kerman is located in the southeastern part of Iran. Carpets from this area, called Kerman’s, are among the most recognizable type of carpets from within the Persian rug category. Typical patterns for Kerman’s carpets include floral and architectural motifs and many have a central medallion in the field. Fine Lavar style Kerman’s were made with garden, tree of life, vase, and overall floral designs. Also within this category are story carpets which depict significant figures, locations, and historical events. Kerman has been one of the major weaving centers since the 17^th century and is where some of the finest quality Persian carpets have been made. Its geographical isolation and dry climate produces wool of exceptional quality which has been dyed into a wide range and variety of colors. During the Safavid period, the famous vase carpets were first produced and this elegant and classic design is still south after today.

Malayer rugs are authentic hand-woven rugs, made by semi-nomadic people living in the district near Arak in north-western Iran. Obvious traces of Kurdish origins are seen in these tribal pieces, with the central field of the rug usually having an intricately patterned medallion in shades of red. Geometric patterns can also be found in these rugs, and many colors other than red can appear.

The material used for the pile is usually wool, the dyes being mainly vegetable. The rugs are woven using asymmetrical Persian knots. Although not uncommon in older or antique pieces, silk is rarely used. In rare cases the rug has a pile of silk and wool. Cotton, or more rarely goat hair, is used for the foundation, and the pile is hand-spun from the weaver’s own sheep.

There are many theories about the passion for Oushak carpets. Devotees have pronounced them as splendidly subtle, a rug that can restore proper balance to a room. Both antique and contemporary furnishings co-exist with an Oushak, and the rug’s sparse design allows you to use yards of colorful fabrics, miles of fringe, and armloads of flowers without sending shockwaves through the room. The original family of Turkish Oushaks was created in the 15^th and 16^th century , and was an instant success with the trade market between Turkey and Venice. They graced the large villas and castles of Europe during the period. The original ancient designs were in vivid colors of turquoise, red, and blue and in ornate patterns. As the periods changed, so did the Oushak. In the later 18th and 19th centuries, the color palette softened and the patterns became less complex. We find beautiful, softly woven carpets in pale tones of cream, saffron, green, and peach as well as those in the more vivid color range. Today most Oushaks are synonymous with sublime elegance, and their look will not wear out over time. Oushaks are fundamentally different from other carpets. It rarely has more than five colors, and there is no refined, sophisticated Rococo feeling. Oushak refers to a town in Western Turkey. While many people think that the knot count of the weave is important when looking for a carpet, this is not the case with Oushaks. Turkish sheep produce some of the world’s best carpet wool. It is lanolin filled and beefy and cannot be spun finely or woven tightly. There is a wonderful luster to antique Oushak carpets that is not found often in other types of rugs and buyers soon learned that knot count does not matter when it comes to Oushaks. The Oushak remains as popular today as it did more than 500 years ago.

A carpet named oddly enough after the royal soap factory, La Savonnerie, at which the first Savonnerie carpets were woven. The greatest artists of the day were commissioned to create designs for the French royalty. The design style was filled mostly with richly decorated floral arrangements both realistic and imaginary. The skilled weavers’ unerring eye for color harmony combined with the subtle use of fleur-de-lys and other symbols, such as royal monograms, and ciphers, all united to glorify the royalty whose castles the pieces beautified. The use of such luxurious carpets brought the furniture, painting and other works of art into instant harmony with each other and with the architectural magnificence and grandiose proportions created by the king’s gifted architects. The carpets are made from the very finest materials available and as such, the carpets are able stand the test of time.

Senna, now known as Sanandaj, is the capital of the district called Kurdistan and gives its name to a group of finely woven kilims of the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The fine floral patterns were inspired by the embroideries and brocades of the Safavid period and most were workshop produced for sophisticated urban demand. Senna rugs are among the best in quality in tribal Kurdish Rugs. The patterns of these are almost always geometric but sometimes bears great resemblance to the Bidjar. Older rugs of this type are extremely valuable and durable.

Senna kilims are small in size and finely woven in slitweave and eccentric weft technique, with cotton warps and wollen wefts; motifs are frequently enhanced with metal or silk threads. The designs often consist of small clusters of flowers, boteh, running vines, bees and a central diamond cluster of small flowers known as a Herati pattern. Persia is not known for its prayer kilims, the sole exception being those made in Senna, with their distinctive bulbous mihrab. The central field of Senna kilims is flanked by a series of major and minor borders of leaf, stem and other floral motifs. The colors are predominantly blue, red and white.

The Shirazi people are actually a Turkish tribe from the Southwestern part of the country. They are closely related to various other nomadic tribes that have traveled throughout various parts of Iran and as far as the Caucasus region and are dependents of the Turkmens. The study of the Shiraz rugs is one of great complexities because of past fragmentation of the tribe. When they began settling in villages, they lost cohesiveness and a sense of tribal identity and their rugs began to take on attributes of the native people in the village. The boteh or paisley design and he chicken design are both attributed to the Shirazi tribe. Also, Shirazi weavers maintained the use of the traditional symmetrical knot (Turkish knot) as opposed to adapting to the Persian asymmetrical knot method. Very old traditional Turkmen designs can be found in carpets dating back to the 16^th century and as late the 19^th century. Shirazi rugs typically have a variety and intensity of colors, arranged tastefully and executed with a great degree of craftsmanship.

The Arat region of western Persia has been known for centuries for their distinctive hand-woven carpets. By the late 19^th century, one-of-a-kind designs were being specially commissioned, by Ziegler & Company of Manchester, England for distribution to the great houses of Europe, America, and the finest Middle-Eastern families. The attraction of these rugs was the superb blend of harmonious colors coupled with a well-balanced design. These special carpets from Sultanabad have taken their place beside other highly reputed carpets.

During this period, Sultanabad weavings remained indigenous works of highly stylized patterns, which included spaciously plotted vinery and serrated palmettes rendered in beautiful colors of the finest vegetable dyes. The prized blue and rust Sultanabads often possess a charming naiveté, along with a palette based in undyed sheep’s wool, in hues of ivory, cream, and beige. The finest and hardest to find are both blue and rust pieces, and the entire Sultanabad group use all-over designs of spaciously placed, extremely over-scale blossoms, asymmetrically arranged across a sparsely adorned field. Designs commissioned by Ziegler reflected a western design sensibility, and have become highly desirable, and thus, increasingly rare to find on the current market. They are distinguished by all-over patterns and a significantly finer weave than standard Sultanabad carpets.

Although based on traditional designs, exceptional Ziegler Sultanabad carpets are preferred by many for their originality, inspired artistry, and impressive over-scale proportions. They are popular for their versatility and compatibility to different decorative styles.

The city of Tabriz has a noteworthy history, both as the Persian city most linked geographically to Europe and Western commerce, and the source of the most venerated weaving’s of the 19th and 20^th century. At the turn of the 18^th century, the center of the world’s rug weaving moved to Tabriz from Isfahan. There is no historical reason, such as war or famine, only Tabriz’s location and the existing workshops in the city. With such auspicious beginnings, during the second half of the 19^th century three Persian workshops: Kurban Dai, Sheik Safi, and most notably Hadju Jallili, were responsible for the reclamation of this celebrated past by reinventing a memorable carpet production. In the first quarter of the 19^th century the master weavers from Isfahan still created their fine masterpieces in rare Polonaise designs and interpreted them in to Tabriz carpets. These are amongst the most desirable and collectible carpets. Even today the city of Tabriz remains the capital of the finest hand made decorative carpets created for both the European and American markets. The 19^th century master weavers requisitioned the finest raw material and expert weavers, and created brilliant floral art carpets with opulent central medallions as well as highly decorative overall designs with up to 600 knots to the square inch. The remarkably effective use of exquisite dyes, some in the subtlest of tone, combined with highly aesthetic finely drawn patterns, has become the trademark of the Tabriz. Although difficult to procure, some remain and are still available in large area carpets. These 19^th century pieces are unrivaled in subtlety, grace, and patina and are marvelously complemented by period décor and fine furnishings. The creation of the Tabriz carpet achieved a goal of a legacy of memorable artwork in the world of fine carpets.

Kilim is a Turkish word defined in dictionaries simply as “flat woven rug”. It seems however, to derive from the Persian form gill which can be tracked to the tenth to eleventh centuries. This word was used specifically for flat woven covers, blankets, and garments as distinct from floor coverings and rugs.

In most recent times the word Kilim encompasses a family of woolen, tapestry woven, weft-faced rugs. It has become apparent through the Kilims themselves, that there are in fact, no clear limit or boundaries defining the Anatolian or Turkish Kilims. The same weaves and weft-faced textiles can be found in the antique French Aubussons, Scandinavian rugs, South American pre-Columbian, Navajo, Indonesian, and Chinese Kilims.

The Turkish Kilims are known for the geometric design and a wonderful palate of colors in their use of the vegetable dyes used in this area. The tapestry weaves of the Turkish Kilim incorporates the use of several weaves, of these are the slit tapestry, the diagonal line or lazy line, and the more common single interlock tapestry weave. The most common of the designs of the Turkish Kilim is multitude of diamond patterns, but others are diagonal bands, stripes, hexagon, and boxed designs.

Nomadic tribes wove the Kilims, and designs reflect the areas and families that wove these carpets. They were usually narrow and sometimes long, but not often, for the tribes traveled from village to village, and these carpets were laid out inside tents and used for ground cover to sleep and eat on. They were then packed back into camel bags, and the tribe moved to the next village.

The antique Kilims of this region that have survived in good condition are becoming the sought after carpets that designers and collectors are looking for today.