Explore iconic rugs from history in our photo gallery. Learn about their significance and unique artistry.
Some oriental carpets are famous because of their age, their beauty or because of their price.
The Pazyryk rug is thought to be the oldest known carpet in the world, dating around 5th c. BC, and found in a dry valley of the Altai Mountains in Kazakhstan. It is in the Hermitage Museum’s possession in St. Petersburg, Russia.
The Marby rug was found in a Swedish church in Marby and carbon dated to the 14th century.
The most famous Persian carpet is probably the Ardabil Carpet at Victoria and Albert Museum in London. This carpet has a twin at Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The Ardabil carpets are a woven in Persia and dated 1539-1540.
Another famous Persian carpet is the Coronation Carpet at Los Angeles County Museum of Art made in Persia 1520-1530. This carpet also had a twin, the Bode Animal Carpet but this twin was destroyed in a bomb raid in Berlin in 1945.
The “Salting Carpet” at Victoria and Albert Museum has giving name to a group of Persian “Salting carpets” from the 16th century.
The most expensive carpet is probably ‘The Clark Sickle-Leaf Carpet’, a 17th century Kerman carpet, sold at Sothebys 5 June 2013 for an exceptional price of $33.8 million.
Another very expensive carpet, The Comtesse de Behague Vase Carpet, was sold at Christie’s in April 2010.
Christie’s sale 3 June 2008 included rugs from the Doris Duke Collection and among them a ca. 1600 Silk Isfahan Rug.
