Description of Design and History
This important and delicately beautiful silk Feraghan item is stylistically closely related to the so-called ‘Mohtaschem’Silk Kashans, and there is one school of thought which maintains that the master-weaver Hajji Mullah Muhammed Hassan Mohtaschem was a native of the Feraghan region, and created some of his finest works in the feraghan tradition – this rug would undoubtedly be included among his Feraghan masterpieces by proponents of this theory. In fact, of the only two rugs recorded which are actually signed by Mohtaschem, the silk Kashan illustrated in Hali, Issue 36, page 7, is distinctly similar to the present item in design and overall stylistic approach. The attribution to Feraghan, rather than Kashan, of our rug and others of this rare group is based on the extremely fine and distinctive structure, the wonderful quality of the silk used, the obvious age apparent in such examples and, especially, the distinctive and ultra-refined palette they invariably employ. a slight angularity in the draughtsmanship and the wonderful economy of ornament is also a distinguishing feature of the group. All these elements are definitively displayed in this graceful medallion rug, with its shimmering pastel tonality, its enchanting palette of lilacs, blues, rose and magenta, and its wealth of related secondary colours which are almost hidden beneath the sumptuous lustre of the silk. A silk Feraghan of superb accomplishment, among the most beautiful and oldest silk Persian rugs knotted since the Safavid era we have encountered.