Mar 01 2007
Is There Really Such a Thing as a ‘Serapi’ Carpet?
The rug market has never been short of imagination in developing narratives to explain carpet formats, structures, or typological labels. One of the most amusing examples of this is the notion that rugs or kilims woven in separate halves sewn down the middle were made as wedding rugs with one half woven by the groom’s family, and the other woven by the bride’s, and the joining of the pieces as a symbol of the marital union itself. In reality, rugs were produced this way because no wider, large-scale looms were available, and the story evolved to explain away the annoying middle seam to potential customers. Nowadays colorful stories like this are only repeated as amusing anecdotes, rather than as a strategy to make a sale. Read the full article, “Is There Really Such a Thing as a ‘Serapi’ Carpet?”
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