The history of persian carpets has more than two thousand years. Since ancient times, Iranian masters have been known for their art of creating masterpieces.
Weaving of persian carpets reached its peak in the 16th century, during the reign of the Safavid dynasty. Today, about five hundred items of that period are exhibited in museums around the world, or kept in private collections.
Persian rugs for the uninitiated man are full of contradictions. They can be found everywhere, they are quite practical and unpretentious, but on the other hand, it is a work of art and is quite profitable investment. The carpet, which would unlikely catch your eyes, can cost a fortune and be a true historical value, which age is not less than three hundred years.
Quality of persian carpet is determined not only by its visual appeal, but also by the wearing quality of the product. Most buyers tend to purchase a handmade carpet, that rug can serve to family for four or five generations, but the woven on the machine carpet, will last twenty years or so. To determine the handmade carpet look closely at the underside of the product. The loops are clearly visible from the inside, the carpet is easy to bend and does not break, the ends of the threads are woven into the fabric and not sewn by a stitching machine.
First of all, to tell good from the bad carpets help pattern complex, wool quality, variety of colors and special aspects of netting. In order to determine the quality of wool, experts recommend to do the following: make a paddle with your palms and scrape the surface of the carpet, if a bit of wool has been left on your fingers, a carpet is woven from the wool of average quality, but if the amount of hair on the palm is enough to tie a mitten, you should not even think about buying this carpet. High-quality wool is soft to the touch, smooth and shiny. Good soft wool absorbs dyes much better than poor quality threads, and this in turn determines the color acceptance and brightness of the carpet pattern.
Vintage Persian carpets that, at least, have been made before 1900 were painted with vegetable dyes for wool coloring, later they began to use chrome and “Swiss dye.” Synthetic dyes practically do not change their colors, while vegetable colours are changing over the years and become slightly greenish.
The most difficult task when buying a Persian carpet is the definition of the weaving and weaving features quality. If you think that the same number of nodes on the outside and underside of carpet shows its high quality, you are wrong. Experts consider this characteristic very unrepresentative.
Collectors have little interest in modern products of mass production, but if you buy a carpet for home use while strapped for cash – just buy a new carpet. Today you can buy new persian wool rug that was spinned by hand, and in the production of these carpets the same vegetable dyes were used, which were used thousands of years ago.
