TEHRAN – The Carpet Museum of Iran will host an online meeting on Tuesday on Tehran carpets, CHTN quoted the museum’s director Parisa Beyzaei as saying on Sunday. 

Carpet experts Nasrin Azadbakhsh and Yusef Samadi are scheduled to deliver speeches during the meeting, which will be streamed both on the museum’s official website and on social media, she added. 

Tehran carpets were woven during the Qajar era (1789–1925) for wealthy families. It was one of the most important occupations of Iranian families in rural areas at the time. However, weaving Tehran carpets is not common these days and they can be only seen in museums and old photos. 

The wool used in these carpets had a very high quality and the carpets had a silky and velvety state. The patterns of the carpets were vary, of which medallion pattern was the most popular. 

Medallion carpet is any floor covering on which the decoration is dominated by a single symmetrical centerpiece, such as a star-shaped, circular, quatrefoiled, or octagonal figure. The name, however, is sometimes also given to a carpet on which the decoration consists of several forms of this kind or even of rows of medallion figures.

Among Persian carpets, particularly those of the classic period, the medallion may represent an open lotus blossom with 16 petals as seen from above, a complex star form, or a quatrefoil with pointed lobes. 

Toward each end of the carpet, there may be added to this centerpiece a cartouche form (an oval or oblong ornate frame), placed transversely, and a finial or pendant that sometimes is very large. In each corner of the field, there may appear a quarter-medallion, which may or may not have the same contour and the same appendages as the central medallion. Such combinations are still used in the decoration of modern Persian carpets.

ABU/MG