Antique "Mehriban" Hamadan Rug

Overlooked and overshadowed during the Neo-Classical period of 1875-1941, arguably 1979, by their orchestrated and majestic counterparts from the great Persian workshops, Hamadan rugs were mostly produced by women villagers for supplementary income as time allowed, mostly off season. Organized production in the city of Hamadan began in ~1911 with OCM establishing operations there under the guidance of weighty expert Cecil Edwards, before interruption, (i.e., devastation) of the "Great War" (World War I) . Most of the Hamadan city production was in larger format, double wefted rugs designated "Alvand" quality. Alvand was chosen in honor of 11750 ft Mt Alvand, which provided for agriculture in the area. In response, the ever astute and industrious Persian villagers began their own home production creating distinctive patterns and weaves.  Experts assert that at peak production there were over 1500 different village producing rugs and surrounding communities. The vast majority of Hamadan village rugs from the era were single wefted, on a cotton foundation, often all vegetal dyed, and in small format ranging from little 2 x 3 mats to 5 x 7. Of course, there were exceptions, some were double wefted like Hamadan shahrbafts, some were palace size like Bibikabad, and some had wool warps and/or wefts like those woven before the 20th century and many Kurdish rugs that are often attributed as part of the Hamadan family of rugs.