InANTIQUES | BLOSSOM DESIGNS

Saraband Rugs

One Persian weaving region that is well known for its unique version of the Boteh design is the Wester n Persian village of Saraband, which is famous for its eponymous Saraband carpets.

These Saraband rugs take the Boteh design, which are already smaller and more stylized versions of the Paisley motif, and shrinks them down to an even smaller scale and into a greater repetition of pattern from one end of the rug to the other.

The Saraband rugs are distinguished not only by their visual style, but also by the sizes in which they were woven. More often that not, Saraband rugs were woven in “kaleghi” (gallery) sizes, with long and narrow rugs that would be oriented toward use in a long corridor or in a space between other rooms.

While the Saraband rugs carry over the cultural meaning behind the Paisley and Boteh rugs, they also bring with them some additional meaning. The name “Saraband”, while coming from the town of the same name in which the rugs were woven, is also a homonym for the words “sarreh band”, which loosely translated from Farsi, mean “busy head”, or could also mean being kept occupied or being entertained. As such, it can be said that the dizzyingly small scale and fine execution of the miniature Boteh designs within these Saraband rugs not only carries the cultural connotation of blooming and blossoming flowers, as well as of beauty and fertility, but also keeps you so dazzled and entertained when looking at them, that you want to keep looking at them indefinitely, and to the point where the rug style and the weavers who make them will carry on from generation to generation.

Ultimately, that is the goal of any good rug, to keep the people who have them (and who make them!) dazzled, entertained, and admiring of the rugs’ beauty for as long as possibly, and hopefully, for many generations into the future.

All of the rug styles discussed in this article remain popular in the United States and around the world, and many wonderful examples of each style can be found in a variety of sizes and designs at www.pgny.com.