Double-sided piled Gabbeh

186 x 116 cm (6' 1" x 3' 10")
Persia, ca. 1930
Condition: very good, good pile, minor small repairs, slight signs of use
Warp: wool, weft: wool, pile: wool

This exceptionally rare, double-sided Gabbeh is woven from high-sheen wool in excellent colors. As early as 1901,
Laura Belle Holt wrote of the very first Gabbeh ever published: "There is a fine sheen on the surface. This rug is quite heavy, and its very oddity makes it interesting to the collector." She described it as an "Arabian Rug" and "probably woven in the vicinity of Shiraz."
This rug, inserted between pages 58 and 59 in the book, features a field of squares that are inscribed multiple times within other squares. In our piece, the squares are designed with increasing wildness from top to bottom. This freedom in the design is also found in some Gabbeh from the Bornet Collection, such as numbers 29 and 30 in "Gabbeh, The George D. Bornet Collection, Part 3."
In the Holt piece, the field is surrounded by seven narrow borders, some of which feature minute motifs, whereas in our piece a pixelated effect can be observed. On the reverse side is a stepped polygon in striking colors on an aubergine-brown ground. This arrangement of red stepped diamonds is reminiscent of Qashqai kilims. In the book "Mystik der Gabbeh," Siawosch Azadi shows a Gabbeh with red bar diamonds and several colored borders on plate 13.
The fact that our rug is also double-sided is very rare. It is a rug of outstanding quality and, at the same time, a feast for the eyes.

Estimate: € 6000 - 8000