Nain carpet. Iran, ca. 1970

Nain carpet. Iran, ca. 1970.
Wool and silk knotted 6 La.
490,000 knots per square metre.
Wear and tear.
Measurements: 146 x 98 cm.
Nain rug from Iran, from the 1970s, in knotted wool with a warm off-white ground with a large central medallion on a blue ground and side borders with floral and geometric decorations.
Nain rugs are often accompanied by a designation: 4La, 6La and 9La, where 'La' in Farsi means 'cloak'. This designation is used to specify the quality of a Nain carpet and refers to the number of the ply of yarns that have been used in each warp row in the manufacture of the carpet. The lower the number the finer the density and the higher the number of knots in the carpet.
On the border with the great Dasht-e-Kavir desert, 200 km east of Isfahan is the city of Nain. The city's carpets have a great reputation and are very popular. Both the material and workmanship are of very good quality and the knot density is high, often exceeding one million knots per square metre. The material in the most exclusive rugs is wool or silk in the warp or silk in the warp, weft and pile. Medallion motifs are common in the centre along with arabesque and floral motifs. The similarity to rugs from the nearby city of Isfahan is remarkable.