Qum, Hereke & Isfahan
Silk Tree-of-Life on Ivory Field with Figural Border
Silk Rugs · Representative imagery
A representative all-silk carpet presenting a tree-of-life and all-over flowering vine rising across a soft ivory-gold field, with a flower-filled vase at the base feeding the ascending blossoms. The border carries figural and animal cartouches among scrolling flowers, in the cultivated manner of the great silk city looms. The tree-of-life motif symbolises growth and the link between earth and heaven, rendered here in the luminous, fine-knotted silk for which Isfahan and Qum are known.
The tradition
Qum, Hereke & Isfahan
Silk rugs represent the finest end of the knotted tradition. Woven in centres such as Qum and Isfahan in Iran and Hereke in Turkey, they use silk for both the foundation and the pile, allowing extraordinarily high knot counts and a level of detail impossible in wool.
Silk's natural sheen makes these rugs shift in colour as you move around them, so a silk carpet reads almost like a changing painting — often hung or used as a showpiece rather than walked on.
Motifs & meaning
Reading the design
Silk rugs carry the classical court repertoire, rendered in the finest possible detail.
Central medallion
The garden pool or dome at the heart of the design.
Fine floral vinework
Scrolling arabesques of the Persian garden.
Hunting & garden scenes
Paradise imagery from the court tradition.
Prayer niche (Hereke)
The directional arch of the finest Turkish silks.
Materials & technique
How it is made
Hand-knotted entirely in silk at very high knot counts, giving the luminous sheen, fine detail and jewel-like colour that define the finest rugs.
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