Samarkand antique rugs are known for their fusion of several different cultures and rug styles. These rugs come from East Turkestan oasis towns, which sit at the intersection of Chinese and Turkish cultures. These rugs typically feature Chinese yellows and red colors popular in Turkey. Traders carried these long and narrow rugs along the silk road beginning in the early 17th century. The rugs showcase themes from several oriental cultures. They borrow the fretwork borders and lotus blossoms from China, Persian floral trellis work, and Turkeys bold borders and carnations. The goal of the weaver was to give everyone along the silk road something that they could identify with the rug’s design. The spacious designs, the combination of influences, and the use of glossy wool with brocaded silk and metal thread embellishments make these rugs unique and valuable.

An early 20th-century Turkish Oushak (Ushak) rug, the light brownfield with a lattice overall of leafy stepped lozenges within a light brown flowerhead border.

Aga John Oriental Rugs has been in business for almost 50 years, and are excited to present their latest handmade rugs on Perigold. Their long-standing relationships with the top weavers from around the world allow them to provide the finest quality handmade rugs available in the market today.

The Qashgai are the largest and most influential of the Fars province nomadic groups. The various subtribes all weave rugs, mostly in scatter sizes. Complex geometric styles are the norm. The best antique rugs of the Qashgai have fine weaves, resilient nomadic wool, crisp drawing and visually arresting saturated colors. Wool foundations are standard. Every design motif gets abstracted by the Qashgai weavers: plants and flowers, animals and birds.

A late 19th-century Antique rug, the shaded cocoa brownfield with an allover pattern of enlarged polychrome floral sprays. The Savonnerie rug factory, located on the site of the present Musee d’Art Moderne, inherited its name from the soap-making factory it took over at the behest of Louis XIII. From 1660 until 1743 Savonnerie was a manufacturer of royale, carrying out commissions for French Aubusson rugs and Aubusson carpets specifically designed for the Royal Palaces. In the 1770s, the tapestry looms at Aubusson in the Cruze Valley near Limoges were converted to produce flat-woven antique rugs and carpets under royal warrant. No one knows precisely when European rugs weaving began in this area, but it is certain that tapestries were first woven there long before the Gothic era.

An early 20th century Samarkand rug, with a trellis overall of angular vinery and abstract flowerheads within striped and key pattern borders.