10'6" x 14'
Circa 1880
Central Persia
In the later 19th century, as the western appetite for oriental carpets increased dramatically, European firms like Ziegler ceased simply to import. They began to open production centers in Iran and became involved in carpet design as well. Ziegler carpets drew directly on the original classic Persian designs of the Safavid period. Here, the classical Herat pattern with its grand, undulating sickle-shaped leaves and palmettes achieves a monumental scale - very large in proportion to the size of the carpet - not seen since the great effloresce of Persian weaving centuries earlier. The monumentalilty of the field is beautifully balanced by the more finely scaled, lacy border.