Rugs by Origin
Vintage Rugs by Origin
Persian and Turkish weaving, town by town — from finely knotted Tabriz workshop rugs to village pieces woven from memory in the Zagros mountains.
Start with the two great traditions
- PersianEvery Iranian weaving town we carry, in one place.
- TurkishAnatolian village and workshop weaving.
Persia and Anatolia
Almost everything we sell was woven in one of two traditions. Persian rugs — from the towns and villages of what is now Iran — cover an enormous range, from finely knotted workshop pieces drawn on paper by a named designer to village rugs woven from memory with a confidence no workshop ever reproduces. Turkish rugs, from Anatolia, tend toward symmetrical knotting, bolder geometry and softer, chalkier palettes.
Attribution to a specific town is a professional reading of structure, knot type and density, palette, dye character, wool and design vocabulary. It is offered in good faith and not as a certificate — very few vintage village rugs carry documentation, and anyone offering laboratory certainty about a hundred-year-old piece is telling you something they cannot know. Where we are less sure, we say so rather than rounding up to a more marketable name.
Persian weaving towns
Twenty-one regions, each with its own hand
- HamedanSturdy single-wefted village weaves from western Iran.
- TabrizFinely knotted town rugs, precise and formal.
- KashanCentral-Persian workshop weaving, dense and curvilinear.
- MahalLoose, generous drawing in large decorative formats.
- ArakThe Sultanabad region — soft palettes, all-over fields.
- KermanSoutheastern weaving with open grounds and soft colour.
- BakhtiariGarden panels in bold compartmented layouts.
- ShirazTribal Fars weaving, geometric and confident.
- BalouchDark, tribal, prayer-format pieces from the east.
- TorkamanRepeating gul motifs on deep madder grounds.
- NainVery fine, pale, often with silk highlights.
- MashhadLarge northeastern rugs with rich reds.
- BirjandEastern Persian weaving, finely drawn.
- FerdosVillage pieces from Khorasan province.
- KashmarPictorial and garden designs from Khorasan.
- ZanjanNorthwestern village weaving.
- ArdebilGeometric northwestern rugs near the Caucasus.
- AzarbayjanNorthwestern weaves with Caucasian character.
- GharajehAngular medallions from the Heriz region.
- SavehCentral village weaving, robust and geometric.
- VistHamedan-region village pieces.
Turkish weaving regions
Anatolian village and workshop rugs
- IspartaSouthwestern Anatolian rugs, soft and decorative.
- ManisaWestern Anatolian weaving in gentle palettes.
- AnatolianBroader Turkish village and tribal weaving.
Does origin matter when you're choosing?
Less than people expect. Origin tells you about structure and tradition, and it is genuinely interesting once a rug is in your house — but almost nobody falls for a rug because of where it was made. They fall for the colour, the scale and the drawing, and then find out it is a Hamedan.
Browse by origin if you already know what you like, or if you are building on a piece you own. If you are starting from a room rather than a tradition, colour and size will get you there faster.
Browse the wider collection
Not sure which tradition you're drawn to? These are the easiest places to start.