Lot 136

A KASHAN MOHTASHEM RUG

The hand-knotted Persian wool carpet on cotton warp was created in the elite urban workshops of Kashan. It is a dense weave, very fine wool of velvety quality, masterful workmanship, a stunning palette of colours (from plant parts, tubers, berries, among others). An exceptional design of a flowering garden in Eden for the true believers, executed with perfect symmetry. This extraordinary carpet obviously comes from the very famous Mohtašem manufactory - almost everything would suggest this, except perhaps for the very rare and unusual colour palette (which probably indicates that such a unique piece was created on special order). Particularly fascinating are the aforementioned colours of a purely natural character, which even after more than a century demonstrate the incredible skill of the Kashan master painters. The velvety quality of the full fleece is further reminiscent of the fastidiousness of the finest Kashan workshops, which had merino wool imported from Australia, processed in the Manchester area of England and imported into Persia for the most select clientele at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Undoubtedly an extraordinary investment carpet, the longer edges of the carpet are artfully braided with a purple/crimson silk thread, one of the hallmarks of the sought-after and highly desirable Kashan Mohtasham (after the name of the creator of Haji Mulla Muhammad Hassan Mohtasham), the vast majority of which left the Kashan factory unsigned. The density of knots is about 500,000 per m², almost perfect condition. Professionally cleaned and professionally impregnated with lanolin.