Rug with Stylized Floral Lattice Design

Artist

Baluch, Northeastern Iran (Iranian)

Date

1850s-1890s

Medium

Wool

Dimensions

Work : 6 ft. 6 1/2 in. x 38 in. (2 m x 96.52 cm)

Credit Line

Gift of Verne Trinoskey and Paula Armintrout Trinoskey

Object Number

2019.25.56

Label

Weaving has been a commercial activity in Baluchistan for centuries. Although many of the textiles woven by the nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples of the region were made for their own use, a significant number were made to be sold to earn money to buy things the people could not produce for themselves. The floral lattice design seen on this rug appears frequently in 19th and early 20th-century Baluch weavings, and may have been influenced by demands from rug merchants for more standardized, recognizable designs. For many years, Western dealers and collectors did not fully understand and appreciate the rugs and other weavings of Baluchistan, and these rugs were often sold more cheaply and used more roughly than weavings from other parts of Iran and Central Asia. Legend has it that some Baluch rugs were even used as packing material to protect shipments of other weavings from the region that were considered more valuable.