| |
Herat rugs
by Mary Beach Langton
HERAT
Just across the border of
Khorasan, in Afghanistan, is the old Persian city
of Herat. Situated as it is in the direct line of
travel between Bokhara and Cashmere, as well as
between Meshed and the East, we find it the
market for fabrics made in Khorasan as well as in
and about the city itself. Its four bazaars,
under one great dome, are the most famous in this
part of the East. The sheep of this district are
noted for the fine quality of wool, and the silk
is of home growth. In Shah Abbas's time the city
became the center of learning and culture. The rugs
of that and later times were of the old Herati
pattern, in great refinement of color; but since
it has become a part of Afghanistan we see a
" certain wild grandeur," corresponding
to the Afghan character, woven into their work.
Design Even to-day the Herati
pattern, the rosette enclosed in elongated
serrated leaves or cloud bands and the diamond
surrounding a rosette with its eight storks,
making an all-over pattern, is universally used.
Whenever the palm pattern is made use of the
figures are always faced in one direction,
differing from the Saraband rugs in this respect;
and the influence of Indiais sometimes seen in
the elongation of the palm.
The field is usually dark
blue or old red, with sometimes a purplish tone,
like the effect of haze on distant hills; the
center border is green, with ivory, yellow, red,
and blue in the figures, all so well blended as
to give an effect of repose.
The Herati rugs are closely
woven, of fine wool and good dyes. When silk is
used, it is in the warp, where it does not show,
but gives an unusual fineness to the work. The
modern rugs are somewhat heavier than the
Khorasan, of silky, soft texture, and tied with
the Ghiordes knot. They are a durable rug, of
great brilliancy.
Their finish is like the
Khorasan Finish and rug. In size they are from
five to eight feet by ten to twenty feet, and
also in runners from six, seven, to eight feet by
twenty feet. Beautiful saddlebags are also made.
How to know oriental rugs, a handbook
by Mary Beach Langton, D. Appleton and Company,
1904
|
Herat Rugs By John
Kimberly Mumford
Herat.—The state of facts
which has seemed to warrant the classification of the
Mosul fabrics with the Caucasian finds exact duplication
here, in the case of the carpets named for Herat, the
City of a Hundred Gardens, which, from its strategic
importance, has become famed world-wide as the " Key
of India." Though now outside of the geographical
confines of the Persian realm, it bears intimate
historical relation to Persia, and its carpets are allied
in design and coloring to the Persian family of textiles,
rather than to those of the Turkmen districts on the
north, or the Mongolian on the east. The fish pattern,
which has been referred to as prevailing in Feraghan rugs,
is in its purity known among experts as the Herat pattern.
It seems tolerably clear that it originated neither in Herat
nor in the Feraghan district, but was primarily a gift,
in which two at least of the older civilizations
contributed each its part. However that may be, the
design, as a diaper for the body of the rug, and the
accompaniment recognized as the Herat border are
preserved in their integrity in the modern Herat fabrics.
The Herat border has been utilized, with more or less
modification, in half the rug-making sections of the
Orient. In many of the finest pieces in the European
collections it is used to enclose a central design of the
purest Persian, the distinctive Persian character being
maintained, as one authority points out, by the
employment of dark red for the ground-color of the
central field, and a corresponding value of green for the
ground of the border, a combination which seems to have
enjoyed the highest favor among the Persian masters.
The
majority of Herat rugs adhere religiously to the old
design, and whatever their dimensions are in every
essential point, materials, dyeing and weaving,
unsurpassed by any which come out of the East. Aside from
the recognized Herat pattern, almost the only other
device used is the pear shape, repeated throughout the
field after the manner of the Sarabands, save that the
Saraband has the hook turned in opposite directions in
the alternate rows, while in the Herati it is drawn
uniformly. This seems to be employed only in the finest
of the modern examples, and the elongated, gracefully
curved shape of the patterns gives indication of the
close relation which, by reason both of trade and
conquest, has for centuries existed between India and the
Afghan capital. When used for the field the pattern is
often upon a ground of cream yellow or some other light
shade, though the usual ground color is blue. In the
border which accompanies it, in these instances, the
weavers retain the typical Herat forms. Although the fish
patterns used in Feraghan and Herati are essentially
identical, the latter is woven in the Ghiordes knot, the
former in the Senneh.
It is a
common belief that the Herat rugs are woven in Khorasan.
The ground for this is without doubt the thoroughly
Persian character of the fabrics, the knot being the only
point of variance. In this connection it is important to
know that the Herati do not speak of their country as Afghanistan,
but always as Khorasan, a usage dating back to the time
when the Persian sway was less circumscribed than it is
to-day.
There is a
coarse form of Herat carpet which is offered under the
name of Aiyin, or Kayin (Qa’en).
Oriental rugs By John Kimberly Mumford 4th
Edition Scribner, 1921
Herat Rugs by
Garabed T. Pushman
Herat.—Here is a strange case,
that a rug bearing the name of Herat, a city of
Afghanistan, should be classified under Khorasan; yet,
with the exception of the name, Herat rugs have all the
characteristics of Khorasan weaves, and there is no doubt
that Herat rugs were woven in the province of Khorasan,
but evidently disposed of at Herat, because history tells
us that Herat, for a long time, was the capital of the
empire founded by Tamerlane, largely a commercial city,
being the market for the products of many surrounding
countries and provinces, the interior of the city being
divided by four arched bazaars, meeting in a domed
quadrangle in the center of the city; and as the province
of Khorasan lies only a few miles west of Herat, undoubtedly
certain rug-weaving tribes of Khorasan disposed of their
carpets at Herat, from which they derive the name.
It is
quite hard to distinguish Herat rugs from Feraghans, as
they have almost identically the same floral pattern,
with the exception of the main border, which, although
representing the waving vine design with rosettes, still
is quite differently arranged from the Feraghan border.
Herat rugs are very closely woven;
but, on account of the very soft quality of the Khorasan
wool, they are rather soft in texture. In color they
often have a purplish pink cast, while in Feraghan it is
either red or pink. They seldom come in small sizes, or
very large squares, usually being oblong in shape, from 5
to 8 x 10 to 20 long.
Art panels from the hand looms of the far
Orient: as seen by a native rug weaver, by Garabed T.
Pushman, 3rd Edition, R. R. Donnelley & sons company,
1902
|