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Lot Essay
The city of Kashan in central Persia has been a major center of textile production since the Safavid dynasty and was an early center of sericulture. Halfway between Tehran and Isfahan, Kashan is situated in an arid, treeless and almost waterless plain. During the 16th and 17th centuries, its inhabitants, unable to make a living from the land, turned to textile production. The Afghan invasion of Persia in 1723 brought an end to most weaving centers due to unrest and turmoil with a revival of the tradition in the late 19th century during the Qajar dynasty. A revival of handmade rugs competed with the machine made textiles exported to Persia from the West, with sophisticated workshops, such as Mohtasham, thriving.
The controversial term Mohtasham is shrouded in mystery. Carpet legend asserts that a Hadji Mollah Mohammad Hassan Mohtasham of Kashan, a successful textile businessman, married a young woman from Sultanabad, an active weaving village at the time. Taking advantage of her knotted pile expertise, he had her weave some rugs that quickly became popular and "Mohtasham" became the preeminent workshop in Kashan (see Azadi, S.U., "Mohtasham Kashan," Ghereh, issue 23, pp. 9-19). There is no definitive information to support this legend, but there are two known carpets signed Hadji Mollah Mohammad Hassan Mohtasham, indicating that there was an active workshop producing rugs and carpets of high quality, most unsigned.
Although we can not say with certainty if this carpet was woven in the Mohtasham workshop, its structure, highly sophisticated design, luminous color and superior quality of wool indicates that it is of a specific production type attributed to the Mohtasham workshop.
The controversial term Mohtasham is shrouded in mystery. Carpet legend asserts that a Hadji Mollah Mohammad Hassan Mohtasham of Kashan, a successful textile businessman, married a young woman from Sultanabad, an active weaving village at the time. Taking advantage of her knotted pile expertise, he had her weave some rugs that quickly became popular and "Mohtasham" became the preeminent workshop in Kashan (see Azadi, S.U., "Mohtasham Kashan," Ghereh, issue 23, pp. 9-19). There is no definitive information to support this legend, but there are two known carpets signed Hadji Mollah Mohammad Hassan Mohtasham, indicating that there was an active workshop producing rugs and carpets of high quality, most unsigned.
Although we can not say with certainty if this carpet was woven in the Mohtasham workshop, its structure, highly sophisticated design, luminous color and superior quality of wool indicates that it is of a specific production type attributed to the Mohtasham workshop.