Antique Sultanabad carpet

Object Description

A beautiful soft coloured antique Sultanabad carpet, with a wonderful drawing of palmette floral motifs, flowing vines and leaves, a well proportioned and open all over design.  A loose and light handle to this antique carpet, the wool is incredibly soft with lots of lush pile showing over the main body of this piece.  Woven around 1880-1890, the vegetable colours that were used from the late 19th century are faded and varied.  The main background uses soft pinkish red tones, with subtle abrash (dye change) adding depth and interest, sage greens, muted blue tones and yellows have been used for the floral decoration, working very well to create a handsome decorative carpet.  The pale blue/grey border is a wonderful accompaniment to the overall palette.

Please contact us to request a home visit, having visited customers in their own homes for over 30 years. We feel it is vital to view carpets and rugs at home, so you can make the ideal choice, trying various options in a room. A free and professional service we have offered since 1990.  We would love to show you this antique Sultanabad carpet at home soon.

If you would prefer to visit our showroom, please arrange a visit.  We have over 1000 antique and contemporary carpets, rugs and runners on offer.  We are located in the small village of Crondall, just outside of Farnham in Surrey, around an hours drive from London.

Object Literature

Sultanabad carpets are very important in the history of weaving as Sultanabad was formally known as Arak which was once the capital of Persia in the 1800’s.  Famous carpets such as Ziegler were woven in Sultanabad by the company Ziegler & Co which produced open large floral designs for western tastes and thrived in the late 19th century exporting these carpets to the US and Europe.  Sultanabad carpets are know as older better quality Mahal’s woven from the mid to late 19th century there pile is much flatter than the younger Mahal carpets and using softer colours rather than the typical reds and blues we associate with most Persian carpets.

Object Condition

Condition wise this carpet is really in excellent order, pile height is full and soft, professionally washed the feel is lovely and ready to be used.  Hardly any wear to mention, some corrosion to the brown wool, these brown dyes have iron properties, so corrosion is often apparent on these dyes from the late 19th century.  Please view all the additional 14 close up images to see the condition and colours.  We take all our photographs in natural light and with no editing, so you can see the real colours.

Object Details