Four or five times a year Bull Street Auctions conducts special imported rug auctions. Each auction contains over 300 hand made wool and silk blend rugs from tribes throughout the Regions of Iraq, Iran, Inda, Pakistan, and the Baltic area.
This is the second in a series of articles describing the history of imported rugs. The first article discussed the development of the art of hand knotted rugs. this article describes how rugs are weaved.
Materials
Wool is the most common material for carpets but cotton is frequently used for the foundation of city and workshop carpets. Silk carpets while also mad are less common than wool carpets since silk is more expensive and less durable. Due to their rarity, value and lack of durability, silk carpets are often displayed on the wall like tapestries rather than being used as floor coverings.
The Long Weaving Process
To begin making a rug, you need a foundation consisting of warps strong, thick threads of cotton, wool or silk which run the length of the rug and wefts similar threads which pass under and over the warps from one side to the other.
Weaving normally begins by passing a number of wefts through the bottom warp to form a base to start from. Loosely piled knots of dyed wool or silk are then tied around consecutive sets of adjacent warps to create the intricate patterns in the rug. As more rows are tied to the foundation, these knots become the pile of the rug. Between each row of knots, one or more shots of weft are passed to tightly pack down and secure the rows. Depending on the fineness of the weave, the quality of the materials and the expertise of the weavers, the knot count of a hand made rug can vary anywhere from 16 to 550 knots (1,020 km/h) per square in
Looms do not
vary greatly in essential details, but they do vary in size and
sophistication. Yet all
provide the
correct tension and the means of dividing the warps into alternate
sets of leaves.
The Horizontal Loom is the simplest form of loom is a horizontal; one that can be staked to the ground or supported by sidepieces on the ground. This style of loom is ideal for nomadic people as it can be assembled or dismantled and is easily transportable. Rugs produced on horizontal looms are generally fairly small and the weave quality is inferior to those rugs made on a professional standing loom.
Vertical looms are undoubtedly more comfortable to operate. These are found more in city weavers and sedentary peoples because they are hard to dismantle and transport. There is no limit to the length of the carpet that can be woven on a vertical loom and there is no restriction to its width.
To operate the loom, the weaver needs a number of essential tools: a knife for cutting the yarn as the knots are tied; a comb-like instrument for packing down the wefts; and a pair of shears for trimming the pile. In Tabriz the knife is combined with a hook to tie the knots which lets the weavers produce very fine rugs, as their fingers alone are too thick to do the
The Two basic knots are used in most Persian Carpets and Oriental rugs: the symmetrical Turkish or Ghiordes knot (used in Turkey, the Caucasus, East Turkmenistan, and some Turkish and Kurdish areas of Iran), and the asymmetrical Persian or Senneh knot (Iran, India, Turkey, Pakistan, China, and Egypt).
To make a Turkish knot, the yarn is passed between two adjacent warps, brought back under one, wrapped around both forming a collar, then pulled through the center so that both ends emerge between the warps. The Persian knot is used for finer rugs. The yarn is wrapped around only one warp, then passed behind the adjacent warp so that it divides the two ends of the yarn.
Knot density is a traditional measure for quality of handmade carpets. It refers, quite simply, to the number of knots per unit of surface area - typically either per square inch or per square centimeter.
For two carpets of the same age and similar design, the one with the higher number of knots will be the more valuable. With more than 30 knots per square centimeter (1 sq cm = approx. 0.155 square inch), the carpet pattern will have less pixelation. The carpet's surface will also feel more solid and will give better protection against aging.
A Persian carpet with fewer than 30 knots per sq cm is generally considered an average to low-quality carpet, while over 50 indicates a fine piece of work.
Hand-tying of knots is a very labour-intensive task. An average weaver can tie almost 10,000 knots per day. More difficult patterns with an above-average knot density can only be woven by a skilful weaver, thus increasing the production costs even more.
Bull Street Auctions is located at 2819 Bull St in Savannah, Ga. Auctions are held every two weeks.
Bull Street Auctions specializes in Estate Sales and Liqiudations; we also provide moving and clean out services. We are always seeking consignments of antique and quality used furnishings, rugs, chandeliers and collectibles.
For further information go to www.bullstreetauctions.com or call 912 443 9353
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