Vintage Qashqai gabbeh rug from Iran. 97x63 cms

At first glance, the succession of borders on this vintage Gabbeh rug might suggest a much larger rug. The scale of the design, however, is wonderfully deceptive: this is in fact a charmingly small piece.

The entire rug has been woven with undyed wool, using natural ivory wool for the central field and brown wool for the multiple surrounding borders. Although its overall appearance is deliberately simple, a closer look reveals the surprising richness of these carefully arranged and unusually elaborate borders.

Another fascinating detail is the use of black goat hair for both the warp and weft. This is a characteristic feature often associated with rugs woven by nomadic communities or in particularly remote areas, adding an interesting insight into the rug’s origins and the circumstances in which it was made.

Material: 100% hand-spun sheep wool and goat hair for warp and weft

Size: 97×63 cms

Origin: Qashqai tribe, Iran

Date of weaving: 1970s

Turkic-speaking pastoral nomadic tribal groups began entering central and southern Iran during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The Qashqai, as a large tribal unit, dates back at least to the early eighteenth century, when some Turkish(Turki)-speaking tribal groups in the region existed under the name Qashqai.

Qashqai kilims are best known for their boldness and freedom in the way the pattern is drawn. An aesthetically pleasing geometry, the fineness of their wool and their clear, strong colours combine to ensure their reputation as superlative examples.

Gabbeh rugs

Traditionally a sleeping rug, a gabbeh is a hand-woven pile rug of coarse quality characterized by an abstract design that relies upon open fields of color and a playfulness with geometry. This type of rug is popular among the populations of the Zagros Mountains of Iran, including Kurdish, Luri and Qashqai people.The gabbeh is usually woven by women.

Gabbeh carpets are much thicker and coarser than other Persian carpets; sometimes they can be as much as one inch or 2.5 cm in depth. In fact, they are more a variety of kilim than carpet. The word “gabbeh” comes from the Persian گبه, meaning raw, natural, uncut. This is a rough and primitive carpet.

Gabbeh patterns are of a very basic kind with only a limited number of decorative, mostly rectangular objects, animals and vegetable motives. In a gabbeh usually bright colors, such as yellow and red, are used. Often undyed natural wool is used (brown, beige, black, white etc.). Although large fields of solid color are used in gabbeh designs, the color is variegated (the color varies throughout the rug, with the appearance of differently colored zones).