Kashan

Kashan is arguably the greatest weaving city of western Persia. In the 16th century, superb groups of silk carpets and rugs were woven there as well as some magnificent wool piled carpets on silk foundations, many with animals and hunting scenes. The exact provenance of the great Ardabil carpets still remains a matter of argument, but based on their structure, there are those who would argue strongly for a Kashan workshop for this pair of extraordinary early-16th century masterpieces. Since the second half of the 19th century century, some of the finest carpets and rugs in both wool and silk have been woven there and one of the greatest ustadan, Mohtasthem, has given his name to a whole group of finely woven carpets in both wool and silk, all of which are characterised by the use of (usually) purple or (less often) ruby red silk binding for the selvedges. There are, however, a small group of rugs actually signed by Mohtasthem in both wool and silk and these are amongst the most highly regarded of all Kashan weavings made within the last 100 to 120 years. Some Kashan rugs at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries were embellished with silver metal brocading on some rugs, this covers the entire ground (or the ground is in a form of silk flatweaving) and the design, piled in silk, is raised up from this flat ground in relief. Such rugs are referred to as souf. Many of the finest wool piled rugs from the early-20th century used wool machine-spun in England from Australia merino sheep; these have an extremely fine, soft and shiny patina, as do those rugs woven from the fine belly wool of local sheep and called kurk or kork Kashans.