Located not far from Isfahan, Mashad is famed for its many great works of classical Persian architecture. But although the region around it also produces high quality wool, it does not appear to have become a major rug-producing city until the late nineteenth century. When it became famed for its splendid revival of classical Safavid Perisan rug designs of the seventeenth century, woven in the extremely fine density of the classical forerunners. Mashad also claimed a number of famed design masters. This splendid example certainly exemplifies all these traditions. The field consists of an elegant mina khani trillis arranged in a larger allover diamond configuration punctuated by larger ivory palmettes. Within this trellis finer sprays of pale blue and burgundy vines and palmettes sprawl across the soft gold ground of the various diamond compartments in symmetrical ‘millefiori’ array. The field is framed by contrasting main border of swirling vines and palmettes on a blue ground, reinforced with ivory-ground minor vinescroll borders. Rarely do Persian rugs of the nineteenth century capture so well the regal splendor and elegance of the Safavid carpets that inspired them, but this Mashad is a worthy heir to such precedent.
