Persian Heriz (Ahar) – 11’9” x 8’1”

To the east of Tabriz is a group of villages which have been weaving carpets since at least the early nineteenth century. The most important of these are Heriz, Mehriban, and Asleh. Their carpets use clear brightly coloured wools. The designs are bold and angular and include an attractive repeated lattice of interlaced stems and curved feathery leaves, known as the Herati pattern and much copied in other carpet-weaving centres. The distinctive angularity of Heriz carpets (also known as Serapi) is due to the weavers’ great skill as copyists: they can reproduce the most complex classical designs without cartoons, but the result is somewhat idiosyncratic as they are incapable of weaving curves.