Carpet museums

Jozan Magazine includes a lot of articles and images from carpet museums. In this list we have selected what we think is important carpet museums to visit when you travel around the world.

Austria

Austrian Museum of Applied Arts
MAK – the Austrian Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna has an important collection of 15-17th century Anatolian carpets, Persian carpets and Egyptian Mamluk carpets.

Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum
The Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum in Baku has a large and important collection of Azerbaijani carpets and textiles.

Canada

Textile Museum of Canada
The Textile Museum of Canada in Toronto is delivering programs and exhibitions dedicated to textile arts.

Nickle Arts Museum
The Nickle Arts Museum (Nickle Galleries) in Calgary has an collection of oriental carpets from West and Central Asia.

Opening of Ram Horns & Scorpion Tails. Exhibition at the Nickle Arts Museum.

Denmark

David Collection
The David Collection in Copenhagen has a fine collection of Islamic art from the 8th to the 19th century.

The David Collection, a so called Salting carpet 16th century.

England

Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London is the world’s largest museum of applied and decorative arts and design.

The Salting Carpet. Made in Iran 1560-1580. Bequeathed to the Victoria and Albert Museum by George Salting. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

France

Islamic Art Galleries at Louvre
The Islamic Art Galleries at Louvre in Paris holds an important collection of Mamluk and Safavid period carpets.

“Vase” carpet Kerman. Louvre Islamic Art Galleries.

Germany

Museum of Islamic Art in Berlin
Museum of Islamic Art in Berlin (Museum für Islamische Kunst) has an impressing collection of ancient Anatolian, Persian and Cairene carpets. Find more articles mentioning the Museum of Islamic Art in Berlin.

Mamluk carpet fragment, Cairo. Late 15th century or early 16th century. Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin (Museum of Islamic Art, Berlin)

Hungary

Museum of Applied Arts in Budapest
The Museum of Applied Arts in Budapest has an important collection of Ottoman Turkish carpets.

17th century Lotto rug. Named after the Italian painter Lorenzo Lotto. Above: funerary portrait by unknown painter. Museum of Applied Arts in Budapest.

Iran

Carpet Museum of Iran
The Carpet Museum of Iran exhibits Persian carpets from all over Iran, dating back in time to the present.

Detail from a Polonaise carpet, medallion design with Shah Abbasi flowers, silk and cotton & silver thread, Isfahan, 17th century. Carpet Museum of Iran.

Poland

Pod Blacha Palace
Pod Blacha Palace in Warsaw displays a permanent exhibition of Caucasian carpets from the 19th century.

Caucasian Carpets at Pod Blacha Palace in Warsaw

Portugal

Museu do Oriente
The Museum of the Orient (Museu do Oriente) in Lisbon is a museum of Asian art which also includes a collection of Indonesian textiles.

Ikat from the ‘Pusaka Collection’. Exhibition at Museu do Oriente.

Russia

State Hermitage Museum
The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg is one of the largest art museums in the world and among their holdings is the Pazyryk carpet.

Detail from the Pazyryk carpet. State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg

Sweden

National Historical Museum
The National Historical Museum is located in Stockholm and among their holdings is the Marby rug and a large ancient textile collection.

Sumakh from the 13th century. Historical Museum in Stockholm.

Turkey

Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum
The Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum (TIEM – Türk ve İslam Eserleri Müzesi) is located in Sultanahmet in Istanbul and holds, among other ancient Anatolian carpets, a collection of rare 13th century Seljuk carpets.

ICOC participants enjoy the excellent collection at the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art (TIEM – Turk Islam Eserleri Muzesi) during ICOC Istanbul 2007.

Vakiflar Carpet Museum
The Vakiflar Carpet Museum (Istanbul Carpet Museum – Hali Müzesi) in Istanbul is now located near Hagia Sophia. Among the museum’s collection of 15th-19th century Anatolian rugs are many impressing floor-to-ceiling Ushak carpets. Among the pieces in the museum’s collection are ancient rugs found in Ulu Divrigi (the Great Mosque in Divrigi) in the Sivas region.

Vakiflar Carpet Museum – exhibition and reception at ICOC Istanbul

Ethnographic Museum in Konya
The Ethnographic Museum in Konya dispalys a collection of antique and ancient Anatolian carpets. Among the carpets are carpet fragments from the 13th century Seljuk period.

Konya carpet 17th century. Ethnographic Museum in Konya.

Mevlana Museum in Konya
The Mevlana Museum in Konya displays several 16th-18th Anatolian prayer rugs.

Giordes 16th century. Mevlana Museum Konya

Antalya Archaeological Museum
Antalya Archaeological Museum have a large collection of Dosemealti rugs, most of them from the early 20th century.

Dosemealti rug early 20th century. Antalya Archaeological Museum.

United Arab Emirates

Farjam Collection
The Farjam Collection in Dubai includes an Islamic section with fine carpets.

An Isfahan Carpet Central Persia, 17th Century. The Farjam Collection.

United States

Metropolitan Museum of Arts
Metropolitan Museum of Arts (The MET) in New York has one of the most famous collections of Islamic art in the world.

The ‘Simonetti’ Carpet. Likely produced in Egypt ca. 1500 under the Mamluk dynasty. Metropolitan Museum of Arts, Islamic Art Galleries.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has a collection of carpets which includes two of the world’s most renowned 16th century Persian carpets. The Ardabil Carpet, a twin of the Ardabil Carpet at V&A and LACMA’s Coronation carpet.

The Textile Museum
The Textile Museum in Washington has a collection of more than 21,000 examples of handmade textile art representing five continents and five millennia.

Robe Central Asia, Uzbekistan, Fergana valley. Third quarter 19th century. The Textile Museum. The Megalli Collection

The de Young
The de Young Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco includes the Caroline and H. McCoy Jones Department of Textile Arts which contains more than 14,000 textiles and costumes from around the world.

Cameltrapping khalyk. Masterpieces of Turkmen Weaving at de Young Museum.

Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Asian collections include a large and important group of Persian and Anatolian carpets from the 16-18th centuries.

Marquand Medallion Carpet. 16th century Persia. 353.1 x 179.1 cm. Philadelphia Museum of Art: The John D. McIlhenny Collection, bequest of Mrs. John D. McIlhenny, 1943

Macculloch Hall Historical Museum
Macculloch Hall Historical Museum’s carpet collection of 65 rugs and carpets was assembled by the Museum’s founder, W. Parsons Todd (1877-1976). Read the article Antique Carpets Through the Eyes of W. Parsons Todd.