Qum Silk Area Rugs

Fantastic Beauty on Artistic Silk Work

Qum Persian rugs are among the finest handmade carpets in the world, if not the absolute finest. They are professionally woven by hand in the city of Qum, which is south of Tehran, Iran and renowned for its exceptional rugs. The carpet industry of this city is incredibly modern and greatly respected worldwide. The quality of an authentic Qum rug is extraordinary therefore, prices tend to be much higher than those made elsewhere (with the exception of Isfahan, Nain, Tabriz and a few other fine rug producing centers in Iran). One should also consider the fact that most Qum rugs take several years to complete. In some bigger pieces, it may take numerous expert weavers well over ten years to construct a single rug. There are some Qum rugs in the world today that cost several hundreds of thousands of dollars and sometimes well over a million.

History of Qum Rugs 

Qum rugs are hand knotted in the city of Qum or nearby villages but mostly in Qum itself. Qum is located in the central Persia, approximately 120 km south of the Capital Tehran. The city of Qum was literally nonexistent until one of the grand daughters of Prophet Mohammad Dies in the desert of Qum while traveling to Khorasan to visit his exiled brother Imam Reza (died 823 A. D.), the eight Imam of Shi’i Muslims. As a saint and Daughter of an Imam her burial site becomes a shrine and one of the most visited and most respected holy sites in Persia. Gradually People moved around the shrine and a new city was born.

The Rug weaving art may have been introduced to Qum from surrounding cities such as Kashan and Isfahan and Arak, as early as several hundred years ago; but Qum did not gain fame as center of making finest Persian Rugs until about until the second decade of 20th century about 80 years ago. Since then Qum hand knotted rugs constantly excelled and moved towards perfection. The Qum doesn't have a distinct pattern so it produces a variety of beautiful rugs, with numerous exiting designs. Frequently, ancient and established designs of historic carpets are reproduced in Qum. Today, Qum has one of the most modern rug weaving industries in all of Asia.

Construction of Qum Rugs 

The Qum rug is an example of astounding and excellent craftsmanship that one comes to expect from the Persian people of Iran. The makers of these rugs take such pride in their product, that they often weave their signature in a small part of the carpet's border. Weaver signatures are found on extremely fine rugs made in other cities as well. There can be many different shapes and sizes in these rugs, including squares, rectangles, ovals, round rugs, or wall hangings, and the sizes may vary from a small mat to a rug the size of city block. The materials used can be wool, silk, or any combination of the two. 

Extraordinary Elegance and Exceptional Mastery of Art on Silk

Qum hand knotted area rugs Particularly the silk on silk rugs are made with such a delicacy that astounds any lover of art who is familiar with hand knotted rugs. Qum silk rugs are so perfect that one would often wonder whether if it is possible to create such a magnificent piece of art by hand. Some Qum rugs are so fine that they almost look like a velvet fabric. They are the finest Persian rugs of all as they are certainly the finest hand made rugs in the world.

Qum Does Make Wool Rugs too A frequently questions asked about Qum rugs is whether Qum produces wool rug too. This is because most people familiar with hand knotted Rugs, particularly in Europe, United States, and Canada have only seen Qum silk rugs. The answer to this question is positive. However because most of the Persian rugs from Qum in Europe and North America are silk, and about %90 of all rugs made in Qum are exported to foreign countries, the assumption in the minds of non-Iranians is that Qum rugs are always pure silk. There are indeed wool rugs produced in Qum too; and Qum wool rugs are among the finest rugs and almost as fine as its silk rugs because those rug weavers are so used to weaving fine Silk rugs that even when they are weaving wool rugs, they fully apply their mastery in crating those rugs.

Qum rugs are so admired in the Western world particularly by celebrities and well known people and wealthy class of the American and European countries that it consists about %10 of all the rugs exported from Persia. The most active era of fine rug weaving In Qum started around 1920 where the European and American market shifted to demanding the finest Persian rugs. Around that time some Kashan rug weavers established few workshops in Qum and employed master weavers who had learnt the rug weaving in Kashan, Isfahan and Arak. The area was already using silk as an accent in their rugs and Qum almost from the beginning used more and more silk in the hand woven rugs and eventually started pure silk rugs on silk foundation. Because of the delicacy of the work, they also employed the finest designs and more attention was given to perform a flawless job. Soon Qum Rugs rendered into a Brand name that no other city would be able to match.

Designs of Qum Rugs

Designs of Qum Rugs As the fame of Qum silk rugs grew, gradually wool and low quality rugs weavers in the city were convinced to switch to elegance. And Qum with multi ethnic weavers from other rug weaving regions adopted designs from other regions and used silk to weave those rugs in most delicate and desirable silk and refined tones. Among the designs that are used in Qum rugs are, shah Abbasi Isfahan, Kashan design known as Quran frame which amazingly stands out in silk and finer weaves, tree patterns often called tree of life, Eslimi, and all over floral design, hunting seen which is becoming an extraordinary performance of arts as Qum rug weavers use their imaginative power to excel the existing designs from Isfahan, Tabriz and Kashan, combination of vase and hunting seen, borrowed partially from Kerman designs. Mehrabi, or arch with columns, and pictorial portraits and Gol-farang designs. Qum Silk Rugs the Most Diverse in Colors As weaving fine silk rugs moves towards ultimate perfection the diversity of color combination in those rugs too reach to an unprecedented level in any hand knotted rug.

Colors of Qum Rugs

Qum silk rugs sometimes include more than 40 distinct colors and as the visual effects of combination of different adjacent colors are taken into consideration, more than 90 colors appear in fine pure silk rugs of Qum. This however doesn’t mean that all Qum rugs have these numbers of colors. Designers sometimes chose fewer colors as some high class clients prefer more subtle colors and matching tones particularly for modern settings. Shapes and Sizes Qum Rugs come in variety of Shapes. Most common shapes in Qum rugs are rectangular, square, and round. However, finer rugs are often used as luxury decorative items and thus sometimes are produced in unusual shapes. Therefore it is possible to find almost unusual dimensions in Qum rugs. You can costume make Qum are rugs for the oddest shape of your particular room. That’s why you have Rugman beside you.

Commen Shapes & Sizes of Qum Area Rugs

Most common sizes in Qum rugs, as many silk Qum rugs are exclusively decorative items, some odd sizes are common to find among Qum silk rugs in which the proportion of the width and length is not common in other rugs. Also it is important to note that unless custom ordered; because silk and fine rugs are generally pricy, Qum rugs often come in smaller sizes such as, 3x5, 4x6, and 6x9. Warning about the Counterfeit When you decide to buy Qum rugs particularly pure silk rugs, watch out for Chines fabrication that is being sold in the market as Persian Qum silk rugs. China is known for copying almost any product from other countries and there is no limitation to their scope of imitation. They simply look which country is good about anything and copy their products. However, Chines silk rugs that are copied from Qum silk rugs are no match to the authentic Persian Qum silk rugs. One needs to use the service of the experts which would often cost a lot, or deal with a trustworthy retailer. Rugman.com Your Trustworthy Qum area Rug Dealer Rugman.com is definitely your right rug seller that would provide you with full detailed educational information about any hand mead rug. If you are buying a Qum silk rug, or any other Persian and Oriental rug, Rugman is your trustable source. You can always be sure what you buy from Rugman is what you get delivered to your door. We do a totally different type of business in a field where there are few dealers you can trust. And we believe that honestly and transparency is the reason behind our success.