Serapi Rug

Serapi Rug
Design of Serapi Rug (Rugman)
General information
Name	Serapi Rug
Original name	قالی سراپی
Alternative name(s)	Serapi Carpet (Heriz Rug)
Origin	Iran: East Azerbaijan
Category	Village
Technical information
Common designs	Medallion, Geometric
Common colors	Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, Ivory, Pink
Dyeing method	Natural, Synthetic
Pile material	Wool
Foundation material	Cotton
Knot type	Symmetrical (Turkish)

Serapi carpet or Serapi rug is woven in Heriz village in East Azerbaijan Province, located in northwest of Iran. These rugs are employed symmetrical knots with cotton foundation and a wool pile. The designs of these rugs are Medallion and Geometric, and the colors are Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, Ivory, Pink.

History

Serapi is a term that is a mystery in the Persian antique carpet market. There is no location or tribe of this name. Sarab, also spelled Saab, a town in northwestern Persia, is known for weaving only runners with a camel hair pile during the nineteenth century. "Serapi" may be a nickname given by American dealers for northwestern Persian Heriz carpets during the nineteenth century. Serape is the word for the popular Mexican-Indian tribal weavings for clothing dating from the seventeenth century; the similarities of the primitive designs and the medallion in serapes to Heriz designs may have inspired American dealers to apply the well-known term to Heriz carpets. American dealers sometimes used nicknames when strong color and design similarities existed for better marketing purposes.
The Serapi nickname was associated with Heriz carpets until the mid-twentieth century, when Persian dealers began to gain influence in the American market and used the original weaving locations to name Persian carpets. To this day, however, Serapi continues to be used all over the world to describe nineteenth-century Heriz carpets.
The nineteenth-century carpets were woven in a higher grade quality than those of the twentieth century. The designs are also sharper in detail and have noticeably more open space amid the design elements compared to later Heriz carpets. Serapi (Heriz) designs are fashionable today in the antique market and are very popular with consumers. Some Serapi carpets have brought six-figure prices in the open market.

See also

Search for Serapi Rug on Wikipedia.

Bibliography

1. Abraham Levi Moheban. 2015. The Encyclopedia of Antique Carpets: Twenty-Five Centuries of Weaving. NewYork: Princeton Architectural Press.