Very Fine Old Persian Mashad Saber Signed Carpet

The holy city of Mashad is the capital of Khorassan and although significantly important carpets were made in the region, namely Herat, in the 17th century, Mashad itself and surrounding towns     namely Doroksh, Mud and Birjand rose to significance following the ‘Revival’ of the handmade Persian carpet industry which began in the late 19th century. Weavers from other established urban carpet producing centres were encouraged to set up workshops there and pursue excellence in the production of decorative furnishing carpets predominantly in the styles of carpets produced during the ‘Golden Era’ of 17th century Safavid carpet production. One of the most famous ustaden of the first half of the 20th century was ‘Emoglie’, (Amoghli), whos’ workshops were in Mashad created some of the most technically fine and accomplished artistic works of woven art of the first half of the 20th century. It is known that Reza Shah Pahlavi commissioned carpets from Emoglie in the late 1920’s and 1930’s, a testament to this highly regarded Persian Mashad carpet designer. Other significant ustaden established workshops in Mashad during the 1920’s, and ‘Sabir’ was one such highly significant and well known master weaver.

This stately Persian Mashad carpet, illustrates the superb artistry of the Mashad ustad ‘Sabir’. The medallion format is traditional to the 17th century Safavid tradition. The oval medallion is three layered with a pale blue centre on a wonderful deep saffron quatrefoil layer, in turn overlaid on a lobed claret outer layer beautifully framed with a pale blue surround which contrasts superbly against the dark blue ground field giving gravitas to the whole central medallion. All woven with delicately drawn floral pendants and arabesque scrolls. The blue field design and accompanying ivory spandrels is intriguing. The blue field design presents two layered vines link a variety of palmettes, flower heads and end in leaf clusters. The pattern is open and spacious yet the details are magnificently presented in a broad range of jewel like light and darker colours. The intriguing element is seen in the contrasting ivory spandrels, as they display a different drawing style to the main field defined by the presence of scrolling curvilinear vines ending in trifoliate floral forms on one layer, the other layer ending in split arabesques, centred by a dominant trifoliate elongated pine cone which point inwards. This change in drawing style presents an original and highly effective contribution to the stately appearance of this fine Persian Mashad carpet. Such an original combination could be described as a characteristic of the work of the Master Weaver ‘Sabir’. Sabir originality can also be seen in the clever use of colour whereby the main border colour is a wonderful pale dove blue adorned with the range of finely drawn traditional floral elements in the typical jewel like colour palette of Mashad. Normally the border colour would be presented with a colour present in the main field contrasting the darker blue field colour, so taking this to its logical conclusion the claret red colour would be a likely colour to use with a blue outer guard border.

Such originality has resulted in a magnificent overall composition epitomising the very best of Persian Mashad carpet weaving, consistent with the exceptional artistry of the Ustad ‘Sabir’.

Very Fine Old Persian Mashad Saber Signed Carpet. This piece was handwoven in Mashad , Iran. For further information please contact us and our team will be pleased to assist you. All pieces in the collection are under the auspices of Essie Sakhai, one of the world’s foremost experts and collectors of fine handmade Persian rugs and carpets.