Description

Sultanabad

Arak province in western Iran encompasses the town of Sultanabad and various satellite villages, all of which weave for export:the sarouk, Mahal and MushKabad. The latter two grades comprise the sultanabad production. Virtually all are large carpets, up to 16’ x 25’, with overall, or medallions on decorated or open fields, in soft to bright colors on a cotton foundation, the pile is lowish. The design corpus includes the ever popular Herati, the Harshang palmette motif, rosettes and arabesques, small repeated medallions, etc. The weave varies from coarse to medium. Today, the soft colored pieces with bold patterns are particularly favored. Prices range widely, low for commercial pieces 50 years old, astronomical for light colored Zieglers (see below).