Clarksville daily chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1884-188?, 1884-11-06
PERSIAN CARPETS AND RUGS.
Costly Work Done By Peasanss-Luxs
urf0us Carpets Called Nanads.
FU-oH,owr.o

1 AAA0u8 O8hRS~B O9AADM NAMAA48a
LExchange.I
The far-famed rugs and carpets OF
Persia are largely made by peasants in
their homes, and are in reality sort of
Reedlework. United States Consul Gen,
Benjamin at Teheran has sent to the
state department long account of the
business. He says there are four lead
ing classes of these carpets-the large
size, the rugs, the ghileem, or knitted
goods, and the namads, or felt carpets.
Carpets produced in Irak are called
pharaghans, and are firmer than other
Persian carpets. Large-sized carpets
must be made to order.
Besides the pharaghan carpets" he
says, floors are also carpeted sometimes
with fabrics from Kerwanshab, Hawa-
dan, and the district of Lauristan.
Also for this purpose the carpets of
Mech Kabad, in Khorassen, are availa-
BILE, although Of inferior texture to the
pharaghan. The carpets of Kerwan
have the texture fitted to the rough
usage required in covering floors; but
while perhaps of superior quality to the
pharaghan, they are always small and
OABChOhNO.
THE Persian carpet par excellence is
the rug. The Persians use these in
preference to large sizes. First cover
ing the earth floor with hasseer or mat
ting of split reeds, they lay over it
many rugs, which completely conceal
the mat. This arrangement when COM
posed of rugs OF. harmonious designs, is
very rich, while the cost is actually less
than if one large carpet we're employed
instead
ga point to be considered is that
while the small carpets of Persia go
under the general designation of rugs,
it would be serious mistake to con
slider them all as merely carpets of
small size intended to be trod on by
heavy shoes. In the first place Persians,
when at home, take off their shoes, and
thus carpet of fine, delicate wool and
design will last for ages, and actually
improve with use such as this. In the
second place, large proportion of the
rugs of Persia, and especially the finer
grades, are never intended to be laid on
the floor, but to cover divans or tables,
or to hang as tapestries and portieres.
"This explains the extreme fineness of
texture and velvety surface which many
of these rugs display, and also accounts
for the fringe at the ends. Some Of the
rugs of Kerwan are almost as fine as
cashmere shawls. The designs of these
rugs were formerly of large pattern,
with a general ground of red, white or
some other uniform tint, with borders
and details of minute tracery harmon
izing with rather than disturbing the
general effect. These patter rms are I'M
questionably of higher artistic import
ance, exhibiting quality designated by
artists as breadth.
''The colors formerly employed in tho
rugs of Persia were imperishable. Rugy
one hundred years old show no deterior,
alton in tint, but rather softness sucd
as old paintings assume. The introduc,
ton of analine dyes at one time threat
ened to ruin the manufacture of textile
fabrics in Persia, but the law against
the employment of aniline dyes enacted
by the Persian government is enforced
with rigor.
''The namads or felt carpets of Persia,
although produced by a process which
perhaps excludes them from the list of
strictly textile fabrics, may yet properly
be considered in this report. The namad
is made by forming a frame of the
thickness intended or excavating place
In the ground floor of the size and
depth equivalent to the namad intended.
The hair is laid in this, and beaten With
mallets until the original disjointed
mass has attained cohesion and is re-
duced to the dimensions of the frame.
A design of colored threads is beaten
into the upper surface, sometimes quite
effective The namad, however, is desir-
able less for its beauty than the complete
sense of comfort which it Chords. 1t is
much thicker than other carpets, and the
sensation to the tread is luxurious. No
carpet has ever been manufactured that
is more suitable for the comfort of
a sleeping-room in winter. One
would imagine that the size
of the namad must necessarily be
limited. But, on the contrary, the
regular Persian carpets rarely equal and
never exceed the dimensions of some
namads The namad is more often
than the carpets intended to cover an
entire floor, elegant rugs being laid over
it in places have seen a namad
seventy-fve feet long by nearly forty
wide in one piece.
There is one species of rug special to
Persia often spoken Of but rarely seen.
/ refer to the rugs made of silk. 1t is
not uncommon to see rugs Of the finer
types with silken tringes, and sometimes
with wool of silk in the body of the
rug. But all silk rugs are rare, and
rarer now than formerly. They are
generally small, and intended for luxury
rather than use, The price is neces-
sarify very high. The chief of the mer-
chants of Teheran told me Of one he had
seen over a tomb; 1t was barely two
square yards in size; but he said 300
tomans, or $3.50, would be low price
for il