Woven with rich, jewel-like colors and intricate symbols, tribal rugs have a timeless quality that fits into any decor. A handmade rug adds comfort and pulls a room together. This is the story of Persian rugs both ancient and modern. It delves into their history and manufacture, and explores their decorating potential and care. In addition, the foreword explains how to select and purchase these rugs wisely -- a major concern of North American consumers. With their vivid colors and patterns, kilims , decorating potential is not limited to the floor. They can be used as pillows, curtains, and wallhangings or to co ver tables, beds, and sofas. From the oldest known rug found in a frozen Siberian tomb to modern weaving done by women nomads and village dwellers, kilims are living art.
Date Published 4/1/1999
Ratings
Rated By: Mendicant Pigeon
From: Unavailable
Rating:
Comments: Great, High Quality Pix & Production Make Informative Book The high quality of the photographic reproductions and the high book publication production values make this book. If you've ever begun to look at so-called Persian carpets, you've no doubt been bewildered by the huge variation in price and quality in these things: Hand woven, powerloomed, hand tufted, machine made, vegetable dyes, artificial dyes, cotton, silk, wool, gabbeh, kilim, rug, Indian, Pakistani, Kurdish, Iranian -not to mention the various tribal and trade names for these things. In other words there is just a head-spinning, mind numbing variety of "Persian" carpets available today and it is super easy to pay too much for inferior quality rugs without knowing a bit about them. Thus, this book is a great first step toward finding some excellent floor covering for your home (and, as evinced by this author, for your pillows, furniture, walls and windows). The book is done in roughly two parts. The first half of the book is a discussion of the history of the rug, with a description of how rugs are made and what goes into them. This discussion is accompanied by a large number of excellent color reproductions to inform the reader. The last part of the book is given over to decorating tips also with many photographic examples, and while this part held little interest for me because I'm not into such things, I suspect a few of the author's many great ideas will be employed by a large percentage of those who read this book. Don't expect a discussion of values, costs, etc. Also, do not expect a reference guide to symbology or a guide to specific tribal motifs, etc. Look for that kind of info instead in more formal studies or books about collectible carpets. Having said this, the author does thoughtfully include a list of carpet retailers at the back of her book, a couple of whom I recognized as well-respected carpet merchants with international reputations. Presently there is a fair number of this book available from Amazon sellers for less than the original publication price and as such I believe this presents an excellent value; kind of like paying for the author's output and getting the great pictures and high quality paper, binding and printing of the book for free. I highly recommend this book to the beginning rug buyer, or perhaps a decorator who wants a great coffee table book for an excellent price.
Woven with rich, jewel-like colors and intricate symbols, tribal 
