If you thought carpets were merely decorative mats that soon could be trampled upon, this surely will convince you to rethink. Exhibitionist Uma Rao, of antique furniture fame, is now displaying some very exquisite antique carpets. Each carpet has a history to tell. Each carpet has cultural reflections weaved in diligently.
The 25-odd pieces have been sourced from the old houses in Delhi and Lucknow. The origin speaks of countries like Iran, Baluchistan, Afghanistan and surrounding tribal areas. Although, time has left a mark on these carpets that age anywhere between 30 to 90 years, the beautiful pieces have aged gracefully and can give competition to any new one in the market. Uma says, “In the olden days, Iranians used to throw their new carpet on the road and allowed vehicles to run over it. A day later, they would wash it and use it at home. Apparently, this made the carpet tough. These carpets that I am displaying are rugged and even today anyone can walk over them.”
Handwoven, the antique carpets are made of goat hair and use only natural colours from wild plant extracts. For instance, indigo has given blue, madder root for rusty red, turmeric gave yellow and henna for green. The motifs vary everytime the origin changes. While the carpets from Iran’s city side are more refined and use motifs like gems, palaces and guldasta designs, the tribal ones are rougher with brazen motifs. A runner on display has pomegranate motifs weaved by the tribals of Yarkand. Move to Afghanistan and you will find typical geometric patterns known as ‘gulmori’ and ‘peel panna’ or the elephant’s foot in rusty red colour extracted from cochineal insects.
A piece that caught the eye was the ivory Iranian carpet called ‘Tabrez’. It’s unique colour with hint of green and ‘guldasta’ design makes it one of the most expensive carpets on display. A 70-year-old blue ‘sharouk’ carpet with 300 knots is yet another rare piece. From palace to prayer carpets, there is all from areas like Kurasan, Haroon Kashan, Khorassan and Samarkand.
Uma herself has a huge fetish for carpets and has about 30 occupying the floor space of her house. She says, “I love carpets. I read tonnes of books on them. Everyone does an exhibition of Tanjore paintings and antique furniture. But I decided to showcase antique carpets purely for my passion.”
The exhibition of these antique carpets is on from July 12 to 20 and will be held at Panchavati Heirlooms, 35 Tate Lane, Off Wood Street, Ashok Nagar.