Sultanabad

In 1883, Ziegler and Co. of Manchester, England, established a Persian carpet workshop in Sultanabad, Iran, an area known as Arak. Ziegler & Co. employed designers from major western department stores, such as B. Altman & Co. in New York and Liberty of London, to adapt and re-color traditional sixteenth and seventeenth century Safavid designs for the more restrained western taste. In addition, traditional local dying techniques were improved, creating new possibilities in color and tonality. With bold, allover patterns and softer palettes than their vibrant Persian counterparts, antique Persian Sultanabad rugs and carpets attracted an immediate following leading to a demand for oriental carpets from the Sultanabad district. Subsequently, until the early twentieth century a large number of oriental rugs were exported from Persia to both Europe and America. Stylistically, this group of Persian antique rug weavings is still regarded as the most appealing to European and American taste. The Ziegler or Sultanabad nomenclature continues to be used in denoting an outstanding antique Mahal rug or carpet from the nineteenth century.