Antique Serapi carpet

With a soft sandy toned border, ivory corner spandrels, muted pale blues and soft rustic red tones this antique Serapi carpet has a wonderful palette of colours that we associate with weavings from Heriz area in the late 19th century.  The scrolling geometric border design with vines connecting the stylised flowers is a wonderful tribal design.  A larger pattern and these natural dyes are more often found with Serapis rather than younger Heriz rugs from North West Persia.  In very good order, with generally a good pile all ove, no significant wear or losses.  A beautiful rustic antique carpet ready to be used for another 100 plus years.

Antique Serapi carpets are more intricate finer tribal weavings of the Heriz region hand-woven by Azerbaijan Turkish inhabitants close to the city of Heriz in North-West Persia. They are famous among collectors because of their vivid vegetable dyes or soft earth tones that are woven on a geometric pattern.  In terms of design, drawing, and coloration as well, Serapi carpets are clearly part of one and the same tradition as Heriz, despite being a distinct antique rug style, which originated as a Northwest Persian adaptation of early Sarouk Farahan medallion, but with a more geometric, abstract, village sensibility.

Contact us to view this lovely Serapi carpet at home or in our showroom soon, we would be happy to help you the best way we can.

Like Heriz, Serapi carpets have a multiple concentric medallion format that emits jutting branches or vines ending in large stylised palmettes, leaves, or flowers, with framing corner pieces at the periphery of the field. The main border is usually some variant of the ‘turtle’ vine scroll pattern. In terms of design, what distinguishes Serapis from Heriz carpets is once again their more refined approach. The articulation of the medallions is crisper, more finely linear, and open, the highest grade in terms of weave, and very probably the oldest type in terms of age. Heriz carpets are generally coarsely woven with as few as 30 knots per square inch. They also have a deeply depressed warp structure with a markedly ribbed back surface. Since the early twentieth century they have come to make use of light blue cotton wefting. Serapis, in contrast, have a higher knot count, sometimes attaining 80 knots per square inch. Their backs are relatively flat, and they have ivory cotton wefting. Generally they have a softer floppier handle than Heriz's, and they are thinner in construction.

On the whole, it appears that what we call Serapi carpets are simply the oldest, most well-designed, and finely woven Heriz carpets with softer colours than the 1900-1930 pieces.

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