Arak Rugs: Guide to Sarouk/Sarough Rugs and Carpets

Rugs of Arak Province, Iran: American Sarouk Rugs - Feraghan Sarouk Rugs - Mahal Rugs - Sultanabad Rugs - Ziegler-Mahal Carpets - Vist Rugs

Looking for Quality Persian Sarouk Rugs and Carpets?

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Of all Persian rugs and carpets perhaps the most beloved in the United States are the Sarouk carpets. Between the World Wars this was the quintessential Persian rug for the American market. It is popular to condemn the American Sarouk as a travesty but in my opinion it is just a commercial response to the American market.

Trade names for Sarouks include: Feraghan, Viss, Mohajaran Sarouk or Sarough, Sarouk, Mahal, Mushkabad.

Persian Rugs: 1920's Painted Sarouk Carpet

1920's Sarouk Carpet

Sarouk Rugs: Medallion Sarouk/Sarough Carpet

3 1/2 by 5 foot Painted Sarouk

Style and Quality in Sarouk Rugs

Sarouk rugs are made in a rather narrow range of styles and qualities. Rarely do you see poor quality rugs they are also rarely any better that good quality. It is unheard of to see Sarouk/Sarough rugs in the same grades as the best Isfahan Rugs or Kerman rugs and carpets. I can not remember a workshop grade Sarouk and there is no sign of the fine cartoon designers that we see in other cities. The Sarouk from the 1900 at least seems to have been designed by Westerners.

The American Sarouk

With the loss of the European market in W.W.I the market shifted to a rug called The American Sarouk . As Cecil Edwards told us in The Persian Carpet The American Sarouk had certain distinctive characteristics that made it popular: P. R. J. Ford suggests that the American Sarouk was originally produced by Mr. S. Tyriakian the Arak representative of K. S. Taushandjian of New York in the early 1920s1.

11 millimeter pile (.44 inches) deep pile. This was long enough to stand up to a double alkali bleaching after which it was painted.
Knot density from 9 by 10 to 10 by 12 knots to the square inch.
Mill spun cotton warps and the second thinner weft is mill spun the straight weft was hand spun.
Rose field with floral sprays framed by a blue border.

The first European to set up a carpet business in the Sarouk area was very likely Hotz and Son. In a reference to Hotz and Ziegler Reinhard Hubel attributes the pastel shades to Ziegler which suggests that Hotz was using natural dyes.

A.P.H. Hotz (1855-1930)

At the age of 19 Albertus Hotz went to Persia to engage in commercial activities like oil prospecting, coal mining, banking and the carpet weaving industry. In 1884 he moved the seat of his company to London. In 1895 his business failed, but he remained in London until 1902. After a four-year stay in the Netherlands Hotz accepted the post of consul of the Netherlands in Beirut, which he held intermittently until his retirement in 1921. He died in Switzerland in 1930.

Hotz was an avid collector of books and maps. In 1925 he donated part of his collection, mainly maps and atlases, to the Royal Geographical Society, of which he was a fellow. After his death his widow Lucy Woods donated his collection of 15,000 books together with a great number of papers, pamphlets and photographs to Leiden University Library. Well represented in the book collection are Middle Eastern travelogues and diaries. A printed catalogue of the books appeared in 1935-1936: Catalogus A. Hotz, 2 vols., Leiden (Bibliotheca Academiae Lugduno-Batavae, Catalogus, vols. 27, 34). The Hotz Collection / Oosterse collecties

Late Twentieth Century Sarouk

Sarouk rugs are still thick but they are no longer painted. In the second half of the twentieth cream field Sarouks are becoming more popular.

Late 20th Century Sarouk Rug

Late 19th Century Feraghan

Feraghan Sarouks

Prior to the introduction of the American Sarouk these carpets represented the best of the Sarouk production. They were attributed to the village of Feraghan but were likely made in a number of villages.

Once the American Sarouk took off these began to disappear. These pieces are highly desirable in today's market and this one sold for just over 500 dollar per square foot ($74,000) at Sotheby's New York, when it went up for auction in 1998.

These pieces are very similar to the Mohtashem Kashan rugs in handle and structure. An attribution clue is that that Mohtashem Kashan carpets have lavender silk selvages.

Mahal Carpet

From the collection of the Mosque of the Imam Reza:

This is a Mahal Carpet. Mahal is a grade of Sarouk that is thinner than an American Sarouk. This is one of the rugs deaccessioned from the collection of the Mosque of the Imam Reza when the Mosque sold off pieces of it's collection to raise funds.

Mosque of the Imam Reza Collection Mahal

Sarouk Rug, Arak Area, Iran.

Size: All sizes made. carpet sizes are more common.

Structure: Asymmetrical knot open to the left. Ranges from 60 to 300 knots per square inch with the American Sarouk averaging 90 to 120 knots per square inch.

Yarn Spin: Z.

Warp: Cotton

Weft: 2 shots cotton. First shot is thicker and straight and the second is thinner and sinuous. Deeply depressed knots with a warp offset of 85 to 90 degrees.

Pile: 2 wool singles.

Ends: Overhand knots with warp fringe.

Selvages: 1 cord plain wool.

Handle: Medium. American Sarouks have a heavier handle while Feraghan Sarouks and Mahal rugs have a thinner suppler handle.

Further Notes:

Similar Rugs

Feraghan Sarouks are very similar to the Mohtashem Kashan rugs in handle and structure. An attribution clue is that that Mohtashem Kashan rugs have lavender silk selvages.

Related examples:

Sarouk Rugs: Zand or early Qajar Sarouk carpet mid 18th-early 19th C. W&W lot 265

Feraghan - Feraghan Rugs & Carpets

Guide to Mahal Rugs & Carpets

Doris Leslie Blau Mahal Persian Carpet C. 1890 Sotheby's lot 26
Camel and Lion Mahal Persian carpet C. 1890 Sotheby's lot 122
Doris Leslie Blau Mahal Persian Carpet C. 1895 Sotheby's lot 161
Mahal Meditation Persian carpet late 19th C. Sotheby's lot 120
Mahal Carpet Persian carpet End 19th C. Van-Ham lot 580
Mahal Persian prayer rug C. 1900 Sotheby's lot 419
Doris Leslie Blau Mahal Persian Carpet C. 1900 Sotheby's lot 4
Doris Leslie Blau Mahal Persian Carpet C. 1900 Sotheby's lot 208
Mahal Persian Carpet C. 1900 Van-Ham lot 587
Mahal Persian rug C. 1900 Sotheby's lot 424
A circa 1900 Mahal Persian Carpet
Mahal Carpet C. 1900 Sotheby's lot 258
Mahal Persian carpet, C. 1900 W&W lot 203
Mahal Persian Carpet C. 1900 Van-Ham lot 96a
Doris Leslie Blau Mahal Persian Carpet C. 1910 Sotheby's lot 59
Mahal Persian carpet, early 20th W&W lot 137
Mahal Persian Carpet early 20th C. Sotheby's lot 142
Mahal Persian carpet, early 20th W&W lot 138
Mahal Persian carpet, C. 1920 W&W lot 145
Mahal Persian carpet, C. 1920 W&W lot 181
Mahal Persian Carpet Old Van-Ham lot 96
Mahal Persian carpet, 2nd half 20th W&W lot 123
Mosque of the Imam Reza Collection Mahal Persian Carpet

Ziegler-Mahal
Ziegler Rugs of Arak - In 1883, Ziegler and Co., of Manchester, England, established a Persian carpet manufacture in Sultanabad (now Arak), Iran, employing designers from major Western department stores, like B. Altman and Liberty of London, to modify fanciful 16th- and 17th-century Eastern designs for the more restrained Western taste. Using highly developed dying techniques (which Ziegler futilely attempted to copyright) and the best artisans from the region, Ziegler created rugs with bold, allover patterns and with softer palettes than their vibrant Persian counterparts. Ziegler rugs developed an almost immediate following, especially among newly monied Western industrialists; early collectors included the Guinness family, the owners of the stout-beer manufacture, who laid them in Elveden Hall, their Suffolk, England, estate. http://www.farsinet.com/arak/

The key to understanding Ziegler Mahal carpet is that Ziegler organized production on their own looms with their own designs. Ziegler designers started with the standard Persian designs such as forked tendrils, palmettes, and rosettes.