All about the Persian Carpets

My Kerman Afshar Persian Carpet, a special inheritance

Doing the Namaqualand 301km Ultra Walk dominated this last month but this morning I felt the pull of my Life in the Letters blogging.

It is a cool, overcast morning at the Loft. I had taken out my Dad's old, slightly rusty Document Folder and discussed it with Inel, it was still lying on the floor so I dipped into the contents over coffee.

My sisters and I have left the Document Folder here as it contains Dad's Will.

One of the folders got me excited, an envelop with Mom's writing, her record of purchasing her Persians!

And she loved her Persian Carpets.

The envelop has the original invoice and Certificate from Louis de Leeuw, of 147 Commisioner Street in Johannesburg, "The Most Respected Name in Persian Carpets"

The date is the 16th February 1971, over 40 years ago.

The folks had bought four persians. A small and large Mori Bokhara, a Baby Abadeh and an Afshar.

I immediately got sleuthing as I know nothing about Persians. Googling each of the carpet names I worked out that I have inherited the Kerman Afshar carpet.

I remember when I had it cleaned and refringed that the Persian Carpet dealer had remarked that it was a good quality wool carpet.

It is a beauty, it has pride of place here at the Loft and it defines the seating for TV watching. I particularly love the blue tones of the carpet and the warmth it creates in this cool, minimalist space.

How wonderful that Mom's careful record keeping has created such excitement and pleasure for me, I see my carpet with new and appreciative eyes this morning.

PostScript: 

'Around the city of Kerman in the southeast of Iran reside the semi nomads from the Afshar tribe. For hundreds of years these nomads lived in the northwest of Iran, but a part of the tribe were compulsorily transferred to today's area, where carpet manufacturing became an important branch of business.

The carpets have red and blue colour tones and mostly geometrical patterns.'