Village and Commercial Rugs from Iran

Bijar Rug
Northwest Iran
19th Century, Wool pile
254 x 121.9 cm (100 x 48 in.)
Marc Feldman Collection

This carpet is less stiff in handle than the other Bijar rug in this section, and its highly worn pile indicates that it may be of considerable age. The repeated hooked, stepped motif of the field is known to have been in use for over five hundred years because it is depicted in a painting by Hans Memling in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Madrid, datable to 1485–90. It is unusual to find such a perfect classical rendering of this design in a Persian rug.