Antique Carpets: A Medium of Embellishment and Narration
At the corner of Charles Malek Avenue, a well-known street in Beirut, exists a window of vibrant patterns with a feeling of something oriental. That window belongs to an antique store that shares Lebanon and the world with rare carpets that each carry a history. Behind that dazzling window, stands Hadi Maktabi a hunter for rare and special carpets.
“A carpet is a decorative and functional object which may be reduced to an object for floor covering or an item of wall decoration or covering of surface,” says Maktabi. However historically, a carpet has been a medium in through which societies and individuals have expressed their “beliefs, ideas and hopes,” explains Maktabi.
A Royal Hunt
Other than sharing the world with rare carpets, Maktabi PhD was able to bring into his gallery a category of royal carpets. However, the success behind his difficult hunt for royalties required “a lot of skills and a lot of good chance and fortune,” he expressed. Many of these carpets belong to the members of the Qajar and to some extent the Pahlavi dynasties throughout the 19th and early 20th century and are identifiable by “very explicit signature cartouche in which the dedication or commission is written out in direct words” says Maktabi. The collection of royal carpets is stored privately.
Patterns of Art
Inside the store of Hadi Maktabi overwhelms a museum feeling for each antique carpet is displayed as an exhibited piece of art. However, the modernity of the store’s interior does not contradict with the rural origin of each carpet which highlights the harmony of contemporary art and tradition. “Oh they are in way way a lot” speaks Maktabi. Antique carpets are woven and produced using a hand span organic wool and natural dyes. “These factors embedded a lot of quality and fences to them,” adds Maktabi. The designs held in these carpets are far from being repetitive and “de ja vu” however very minimalist. The more rural and nomadic a carpet is the more it meets the standards of modernity. “There’s a great echo and rhyme between these individual antique carpets and the very best of contemporary,” he emphasised.
Generally, carpets contain patterns especially Persian rugs. However, not every antique Persian carpet holds a story to to tell. Some carpets were made for business purposes and some were made to convey a thought. “It’s not about conveying a mood or an emotion as much as symbolism or an identity,” says Maktabi. However, a carpet language exists but evolves and adapts in generations. “Meanings get lost, evolve or change,” he speaks.
To understand a carpet, you will have to tackle two main differences. First, modern carpets are made in professional workshops that are initially drawn by professional designers, painters as well as graphic designers whom create patterns and mix colors in papers and recently through specialised software’s and then the design would be given to a team of weaves who would proceed to create it physically.
On the other hand, rural carpets are made in a different way. A lady, “it’s always a she” stresses Maktabi, sits at the loom and just starts. “She does the work from B to Z” and “A” is the process of getting the wool and dyes. In a rural case, the weaver relies on patterns that has been transmitted through her clan or tribe for generations and centuries. The lady gains the skill of weaving from her mother then transmit it to her own daughters. The weaving process might require a month or a decade. The time needed mainly depends on the weaver and their own circumstances. “Was she pregnant? Was she sick? Did they have enough wool? How big is the carpet?” explains Maktabi.
The Hadi Maktabi gallery is full of remarkable rural carpets. However, one presented carpet carried a different vibe than the rest by it’s fascinating minimalist design, as Maktabi expresses “it is what contemporary artists would dream of”. Also, when looking at that carpet the first question that pops into your mind would be “What is a dark skinned soldier doing on a 100-year-old antique Persian rug?” knowing that the people of Iran are mainly of lighter skins.
Weavers Imagination
Around the time of the first world war near the city of Shiraz in the south of west of Iran there were members of a British trained militia that the British regional government of Bombay set up in the south of Iran to combat the Russian influence in the north and the German spies operating in Central of Iran. These militias were trained and armed by the British government and they sent additional soldiers from British India and British colonies in Africa such as the guy found on the design on the carpet. These happenings caught the imagination of local people back then. For Iranians, especially the nomads who usually don’t encounter armed and coloured skin people. Such scene “was very toxic,” and “was immortalised in this carpet” as Maktabi suggests.
Commercial Carpets vs. Antique Carpets
Like any other industry, competition occurs and in the field of antique carpets commercial ones are the facing competitors. But for Maktabi, this is a not-to-worry-about situation instead, he believes that it improves his standing in the market place for “more people want to save up and acquire objects of lower quality at lower costs with shorter life spans, more people come to realise the wisdom when investing in something that is long-term durable and of remarkable individual appeal,” says Maktabi.
