Name/Title
RugContext
In the center of the floor in the Cochran Girls' Bedroom is a charming 3.5'x5' Persian rug from the mountainous Hamadan region of western Iran. The rug is made of hand-knotted wool and features a rose-colored field with a white center medallion, blue shoulders, and an indigo border. It has a combination of geometric and floral designs that typify rugs from the Hamadan region. Given its small size and single-weft construction, this rug was likely woven in a mountain village of Hamadan and not in one of the urban centers like Malayer or Sarouk.
Persian rugs were known to Europeans since the Middle Ages, but after a prominent display at the Vienna Exhibition of 1873, they exploded into the consciousness of the European and North American public. Commercial interests flooded into the rural area to meet the demand, and soon Western tastes were influencing traditional designs.
The manufacture of Persian rugs is completely organic, using sheep's wool and colored with dyes derived from plants like tumeric, indigo, and eucalyptus. Today, Western sanctions and competition from machine-made rugs have nearly destroyed this traditional industry. This makes the rugs that survive from the heyday of the late 19th and early 20th centuries particularly precious and in need of preservation.
This rug was gifted to the Neill-Cochran House Museum by Mrs. Homoiselle Haden Fay. You can see it, and all of our magical artifacts, Wed-Sun, 11am-4pm.
Sources: NY Times; JSTOR; Little-Persia.comAcquisition
Accession
1972.05Source or Donor
Mrs Albert Bel Fay (Homoiselle Haden)Acquisition Method
Gift