Rugs and carpets from the town of Bidjar in Northwest Iran are prized for the high quality of their weave, along with their superb blend of design and color, as well as the lustrous quality of their wool. Because of the extraordinarily wide range of their design repertory, Bidjars cannot be readily identified by their designs, which range from the classical to the tribal, but primarily by their weave, which is perhaps the densest and most durable of all Oriental rugs. Its tight structure with alternate vertical warps on upper and lower levels, the foundation of the rug and makes it lie absolutely flat on the floor without ever buckling or wrinkling. The field of this lovely example utilizes an allover design of classical Persian boteh or ‘paisley forms articulated in gold against a deep blue ground. The ground itself, however, hardly shows through the fine mesh of tiny vines that flows between the botehs, whose interior is filled with a similar mesh. The richly and finely textured field contrast beautifully with the grander scale and openness of the main border with its grand palmette vinescroll on a terracotta ground. Minor vinescroll borders on a gold ground provide an additional framing effect against the field. Despite the classical sources of all the design elements, the drawing has the charming animated angularity mote typical of tribal weaving, in true Bidjar tradition.
