Veramin kilim

Veramin is an old caravan town located just outside of Tehran. During the 19th century, various tribal groups from across western Persia settled here and joined to create a discernibly Veramin tradition of weaving. Collectors are generally quite familiar with Veramin pile weaving, particularly the smaller blue ground bagfaces woven with Turkmen style guls. Veramin flatweaves, particularly large kilims such as this piece, are much less common. Using a classic Veramin palette of madder red, apricot, subtle green, and deep indigo and medium blues this highly graphic kilim draws alternating bands with large latch-hook devices within octagons and thinner bands of smaller geometric stepped “ashik” devices. This repertoire is similar to ornament found in kilims from Northwest Persia, the Caucasus and even Anatolia. Small bands of weft-float brocade in the Veramin style are scattered throughout the piece.