Rugs from Kashmar, a city in northeastern Iran near Mashhad, whose weavers bring finished pieces to the Mashhad market. Less famous than Tabriz, Mashhad or Kashan, they are often undervalued relative to their quality. Good wool and vegetable dyes give soft, subdued earth tones: brownish cream, light and dark blue, orange, brown and a distinctive pink. Typical designs are a medallion with corner pieces and border, sometimes with vases in place of flowers, and garden designs in panels that each show a scene, such as a lake with trees, a tree of life or deer in a forest. Not to be confused with Kashmir.
Prestigious Persian carpets from Kerman in south-central Iran, a city on the old Iran-India trade route and one of the historic rug-weaving centers. Known for great variety: floral and allover patterns, tree of life, hunting, garden, and open-field designs, fine "spring" florals of tiny flowers, and the distinctive "vase" technique. The pile is usually soft kork wool on a cotton foundation, sometimes silk-and-wool or pure silk. Master dyers use 15 to 30 colors in one rug: deep reds, several blues, green, and cream dominate, and newer rugs add pastels such as champagne, lime green, pink, and gray-blue.
Village rugs from the town of Malayer and neighboring villages between Arak and Hamadan, woven since about the 19th century on an old trade route that brought in outside designs. A cotton foundation, wool pile and symmetrical Turkish knot give a finer weave than most village rugs, with the pile clipped fairly low to show detail. The south-eastern, Sarouk-like style is double-wefted and thicker, with floral medallions or Tree of Life designs; the north-western, Hamadan-like style is single-wefted, geometric and lighter in color. Small rugs and runners predominate.
A design in which one large, elaborate tree rises through most of the field, surrounded by botanical ornament, with birds, animals and flowers spread among its branches. The tree can also occupy a single panel of a garden-panel rug or appear as a border pattern. In Persian tradition it stands for the connection between earth and the environment, is also read as a link between heaven and earth, and symbolizes strength, wisdom and the continuity of life. It is woven in Tabriz, Kashan, Isfahan, Kerman and Malayer rugs and in Baluchi rugs.