with fragments from its twin, is in the Victoria and Albert Museum. A major central portion of the other is in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Both these magnificent carpets were woven in the reign of Shah Tahmâsp. Both carpets have the same original dimensions, about 34½ feet by 17½ feet. The carpets are woven on a silk foundation with an asymmetric knot at approximately 300 knots per square inch. The carpet in the Victoria and Albert museum has the higher knot count. The name of the designer, Maqsud of Kashan, is woven into the rugs. Their specific function and city of origin is conjectural. They were originally thought to have been woven for the shrine at Ardabil, but this use has been questioned due to the size of the rugs. The origin of the carpets has been as signed to Ardabil, Kashan, Mashhad, Tabriz, and other locations. See “Persia.”
Ardabil Carpet Victoria and Albert Museum
Ardakān. A town southeast of Nain in Iran and a source of rugs with Kashan designs, though more coarsely woven.
area rug. In the rug trade, any rug that is not cut and in stalled to cover the floor from wall to wall. Also a rug of about 4½ feet by 7 feet.
Armenia. An ancient country of western Asia, professing Christianity since ca. 300 C. E., that once included parts of eastern Turkey, northern Persia, and the southern Caucasus. There are rugs from all of these areas that carry Armenian inscriptions. The Republic of Armenia occupies a southern portion of the Caucasus. See “Caucasus.”
Often, dates in Armenian rugs appear in letter form. The date can be translated to the Gregorian calendar by determining the sum of the numbers represented by each letter and adding 551 to this sum.
Armenian alphabet with numerical equivalents
Armenia
Armenian rugs. There are rugs with Armenian inscriptions from Iran, Turkey, and the Caucasus. Most are from the Caucasus. Much of the rug production of Shusha in nineteenth-century Karabagh is thought to have been woven by Armenians. Caucasian rugs with western dates are probably Armenian in origin. Some scholars believe the early Caucasian Dragon Carpets are attributable to Armenians of the southern Caucasus. See “Caucasus,” “Dragon carpets,” “Echmiadzin,” “Erivan,” and “Gohar carpet.”
Armenian rug (detail) Wikimedia Commons
armorial carpet. Any carpet bearing a coat of arms or heraldic device. More particularly, carpets woven in Spain by the Moors which were commissioned by Spanish royalty and bore their coats of arms. These carpets are dated as early as 1405. See “Admiral carpets,” “Alpujarra,” “escutcheon,” “Fremlin carpet,” “Girdler’s carpet,” “Kerman armori,” and “Polonaise”
Savonnerie armorial carpet (detail)
Aroon. A lower grade of Kashan. See “Kashan.”
Arraiolos needlework carpet (detail)
Arraiolos. A town of Portugal and a source of needlework carpets beginning in the sixteenth century. Originally designs were based on models from Persia and Anatolia. Later designs include boldly drawn floral and animal motifs of a more European character. The field of these rugs was usually yellow.
Arras. A city of the Netherlands (presently in northern France) famed for tapestries woven from the 13th through the 15th centuries. The name has become synonymous with tapes tries, wall hangings, and curtains.
Arras tapestry
Ashkhabad. Ashkhabad (Ashgabat) is the capital of Turkmenistan, a center for commercial rug manufacture, and a trading center for other Turkmen rugs and weavings. See “Turkmenistan.”
artel. An artisans’ cooperative. Cooperatives of rug weavers were organized in the 1920s in Soviet Russia to weave rugs for export. See “five-year plan rugs.”
artemisia leaf. One of the eight precious things of Confucianism. A Chinese symbol of dignity and happiness sometimes used in rug designs. In the Near East, artemisia stems are used as a yellow dye. In Europe, it is used as a flavoring herb and narcotic (wormwood).
Artemesia
Artemesia leaf (Chinese)
Art Moderne, Art Décoratif, Art Deco, Modern Movement. A style of interior decoration having its origin in the Bauhaus movement. It developed between World Wars One and Two and involved the design of furnishings compatible with modern machine production methods. Art Moderne rug designs were influenced by such artists as Braque, Léger, Mondrian, and Miró. Geometric shapes, blocks of color, straight lines, and curving lines were used to form non-objective designs. These carpets were designed and woven in England, China, Scotland, France, and the United States.
French Art Deco rug (detail) Peter Pap Oriental Rugs Inc
Scandanavian Modern Movement (detail) Doris Leslie Blau
Art Nouveau. The decorative style of Art Nouveau flourished in the last decade of the nineteenth century. It influenced the design of architecture, graphics, and domestic furnishings. A return to high standards of craftsmanship was a goal of this movement. The style is characterized by the exuberant use of plant forms (stems, vines, leaves, flowers) attenuated and integrated into the shape of the object. Outstanding examples of Art Nouveau carpets were designed with these highly stylized plant forms by Sir Frank Brangwyn, Gallén-Kallela of Finland, and Victor Horta of Belgium.
Art Nouveau rug by Frank Brangwyn (detail) Doris Leslie Blau
Arts and Crafts. A design movement of the last quarter of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century originating in Great Britain. Supporters of the movement were committed to craftsmanship in the applied arts and the production of domestic furnishings. They rejected the elaborate decorative styles of manufactured goods then popular on the continent. A guiding concept was that of the designer artisan who executed his or her own designs. The Arts and Crafts movement fostered Art Nouveau. Arts and Crafts rugs were designed by William Morris and C.F.A. Voysey. Hand-knotted Arts and Crafts rugs were woven and many others were designed for production as power-loomed Axminsters. Large scale or out-sized floral motifs were dominant and some pictorial designs were used. See “Art Nouveau,” “Voysey, Charles,” and “Morris, William.”
Arts
