7'1" x 10'6" Persian Bakhtiar Rug | Garden Panel Kheshti Design | Walnut Brown Grey and Ivory
Seventy small gardens laid out in a grid, each one its own little world: this 7'1" x 10'6" Persian Bakhtiar rug carries the classic garden panel design that the Bakhtiari weavers are known for. What sets it apart is the palette. Instead of the usual reds and blues, every panel is worked in walnut brown, camel, slate grey and ivory, which gives a traditional tribal design a calm, earthy look that sits easily in a modern room. It is hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation at 180 to 200 knots per square inch, it is in excellent condition with a full, even pile, and it comes with our certificate of authenticity.
Design and Motifs
The field is divided into 70 panels, 7 across and 10 down, each separated by a narrow ivory line so the grid reads like a garden seen from above. The panels repeat a small vocabulary of motifs, mirrored left to right. Ivory weeping willows, built from columns of dark chevron leaves around a single trunk, are among the most striking. Stepped arches with pillars and small flowers sit on dotted or checkered grounds, some in dark chocolate, some in grey, and one in ivory at the very center of the rug. Branching trees spread tulip-like blossoms across camel and grey grounds, and the most graceful of them, in ivory, runs diagonally through its panel. Upright flowering plants carry rows of small rosettes. Gabled panels hold small vase forms and paired tulips. In the middle rows, large striped boteh in ivory, grey and brown add a bolder rhythm. There is no wide outer border: the grid runs almost to the edge, finished with a slim brown selvage and ivory cotton fringe at both ends.
The Colors: Walnut Brown, Slate Grey and Ivory
The palette is all earth tones, and the panels alternate between them like a patchwork. Walnut brown is the deepest ground, a warm, rich mid-brown used for the flowering plant panels and many of the arches. Camel, a lighter golden tan, fills the tree panels and lifts the grid. Slate grey, a cool, slightly blue-leaning grey, cools things down in the tulip trees, the gabled panels and the willow arches, and it gives the rug much of its modern feel. Ivory is the brightest note, used for the grid lines, the willow panels, the striped boteh and the central arch, so the eye always has somewhere light to rest. Dark chocolate, close to espresso, outlines every motif and fills the darkest arches, while softer taupe shades appear in the dotted grounds behind them. There is no red anywhere in the rug, which is rare for a Bakhtiar.
Bakhtiar: The Garden Rugs of the Zagros Mountains
Bakhtiar rugs are woven by the Bakhtiari people and the villages of Chahar Mahal, in the Zagros Mountains west of Isfahan. Their signature is the garden panel design, known in Persian as kheshti, after the word for a brick or tile. It divides the field into compartments, each holding a tree, a flower or an arch, like the planted squares of a Persian garden. Bakhtiari weaving has a reputation for honest construction and sturdy, resilient wool, and these rugs are built to take everyday traffic for decades. At 180 to 200 knots per square inch, this piece is woven more finely than many village Bakhtiars, which shows in the crisp willow leaves and the clean steps of the arches. Among 7x10 Persian rugs, a garden panel Bakhtiar in neutral browns, greys and ivory is an unusual find, and it works equally well under a dining table or anchoring a living room.
