The Ardabil
Carpets January 31, 2003
- Exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
 Next
to the Pazyryk carpet the most famous carpets in Oriental rug history
are the Ardabil carpets.
The Ardabil carpets are a pair of twins, weaved in Persia in the
16th. century. One of the carpets are exhibited in Victoria and Albert
Museum in London and the other in Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
The carpets are woven in 1539-40 according to the dated inscriptions.
The foundation is of silk and the pile of wool with a knot density at
300-350 knots per square inch ( 470-540.000 knots per square metres).
The size of the carpets are 34 1/2 feet by 17 1/2 feet ( 10,5 metres x
5,3 metres).
The carpet in Los Angeles has the
following inscription in the wool pile: Other than thy threshold I have not refuge in
this world. My head has no resting place other than this doorway. Work
of a servant of the court, Maqsud of Kashan, the year 946 (1539-40).
"That two identical Persian court carpets have survived makes these
carpets extraordinary, but rarer still is the fact that they are signed
and dated", says LACMA Costume and Textiles Curator Dale Carolyn
Gluckman to Jozan Magazine.
The Ardabil Carpets were created in Tabriz, Kashan or Mashad and the
name Ardabil used be course they were originally housed at a
large shrine in the city of Ardabil.
 The
Ardabil Carpet from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art has just
returned after international conservation efforts, cleaning and repair. Restoration took place at the Royal Palace Textile Conservation Studios at Hampton
Court Palace, London.
A special presentation of the Ardabil Carpet will take place in the Atrium of
Los Angeles County Museum of Art's Ahmanson Building from January 22
through May 11, 2004.
The secret carpet
The Ardabil Carpets was purchased of an English carpet broker at the
end of the 19th century and the lower field and border of one of the
carpets used to restore the other. This restored carpet was sold to
Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The other was kept as a secret
until 1931 and donated to Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1965.
Sources: Los Angeles
County Museum of Art, The Oriental Rug Lexicon by Peter F. Stone
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