Carpet Museum, Tehran

...of each popular type of carpet the way his counterpart in India or Dubai could tell you the price of an ounce of gold. And they invest in carpet the way other countries buy shares, gems or precious metals. In my own more modest and less wealthy way, I share their obsession if not their knowledge though I'm much more in the lower-priced flat-weave realm of rugs and kelims rather than the up-market knotted carpets. No matter where I go in the world, ...
...of a visit to Tehran's Carpet Museum got me quite excited. The opportunity to see the best of the best that Iranian craftsmen have made in the past few hundred years was enough to get my pulse racing and I wasn't disappointed; not one little bit.

== The Importance of the Carpet Industry ==
Carpet making is also important to the Iranian economy and 10 million people are involved in one way or another in the carpet trade. That ... more

The Iranian Love Affair with Carpets

Iranians love carpets; I think it's in their blood. Stop any middle-class or wealthy Iranian in the street and he can tell you the going rate of a square meter of each popular type of carpet the way his counterpart in India or Dubai could tell you the price of an ounce of gold. And they invest in carpet the way other countries buy shares, gems or precious metals. In my own more modest and less wealthy way, I share their obsession if not their knowledge though I'm much more in the lower-priced flat-weave realm of rugs and kelims rather than the up-market knotted carpets. No matter where I go in the world, I'm always on the hunt for rugs and I like nothing more than a really good battle with a bunch of rug salesmen over a few glasses of hot sweet tea. I never get out without buying and I never give in without making them squeal.

You can imagine therefore that the prospect of a visit to Tehran's Carpet Museum got me quite excited. The opportunity to see the best of the best that Iranian craftsmen have made in the past few hundred years was enough to get my pulse racing and I wasn't disappointed; not one little bit.

The Importance of the Carpet Industry

Carpet making is also important to the Iranian economy and 10 million people are involved in one way or another in the carpet trade. That baffles my mind for a land with a population of 66 million, but our guide told us the numbers and I have no reason to challenge the accuracy of his claim. Only the oil industry is bigger than carpet making and trading.

Our Visit

The Carpet Museum near Laleh Park was opened in 1977 and built at the instigation of the late Shah's wife. The building was custom-designed to display carpets in the best possible way with lots of wall and floor space spread over two floors. The lighting and temperature inside the museum are optimised to ensure the best possible conditions for the carpets. The ground floor houses the permanent exhibition whilst the upstairs has temporary exhibits.

From the outside, the low white building is designed to resemble a loom with warp and weft picked out in the architecture. Our tickets set us back the sum of 5000 rials which at the time of our visit was about 30 pence (or 45 cents). After paying at the desk on the way in, we found ourselves in a high walled atrium with a few carpets on the walls, a small loom on which the guide could explain the art of carpet knotting, a small souvenir stand and a rather nice little tea-shop. Leaving the brightness of this room behind us, we headed into the main display room.

Most of the carpets are displayed vertically which means you can really get up close and see the detail. Only the larger ones are displayed on the floor. Whilst the floor displays enable you to see the carpets from the angle that their owners would have seen them every day when they were on the floor, the vertical mounting allows you to get the purity of the colours with the light unscattered by viewing from an angle. The carpets are given lots of space and there are plenty of leather couches where you can just sit down and stare at your favourites for as long as you want to. The museum is exceptionally peaceful and the only sound is the background thrum of the air conditioner systems. The carpets are viewed with the hushed and awe-struck silence of a holy place or a library.

The carpets on the ground floor are laid out in a roughly chronological way starting with a replica of one of the oldest known rugs from the 5th century BC. The original is apparently in St Petersburg. The 16th and 17th century rugs of the Safavid dynasty (including those from the time of Shah Abbas, the man who really upped the ante on the fashion for rug trading) are particularly fine and some of the later carpets are filled with birds, plants and animals. Unlike Sunni Islam where the depiction of living creatures is discouraged in art, the Shi'a tradition has no blocks against representation of people or animals and this means the Persian rugs are often more picturesque than those from other Islamic countries.

One of the finest carpets which takes pride of place in the museum is a 15th century Sephadic carpet which was bought by the Shah's wife at an auction in London. This one is displayed with a large Perspex or glass panel to protect it and I spent many minutes just walking round and round, drinking it all in.

And talking of drinking, once we'd covered all the carpet displays, been round the ground floor twice as well as popping back for further looks at our favourites, we went to the cafeteria for tea and cakes. After all, culture is thirsty work!

~~Recommendation?~~

If you love carpets, you'll love this museum. If you've no interest at all in the art of weaving, you'll probably still have a pleasant time looking at a bunch of very pretty carpets and wandering round a nice air-conditioned museum. And the cake in the cafeteria should cheer up the people who don't really find carpets as exciting as I do.
 

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