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| Pile | wool/silk short clipped | Designs | Shah Abbas | | Warp/Weft | cotton and cotton | Colours | Cream, dark and light Blue, Red, Ivory | | Knots | Persian Knot, 350 plus | Tribal | workshop |
Nain is a small oasis town in the centre of Iran, within close proximity to the famous city of Esfahan. For centuries it was well known for producing high quality handmade woollen cloth. But at the turn of the 20th century, this trade fell into decline and thus the town imported weavers from Esfahan to create carpets and rugs.
From WW2 onwards, they settled into an unmistakable design and quality of their own. Nain rugs look very similar to Esfahan rugs and exhibit a similar quality of knotting. Many consider them as useable Esfahans.
They are constructed using the Persian knot and can exhibit between 300 and upto 700 knots per inch. Silk is often used to highlight parts of the decoration and the wool used for the pile is of the highest quality and is always closely cropped. Some pieces are made entirely of silk.
Vertical looms are used, both the warp and weft are usually very fine cotton: the weft containing two rows of thread passing between the rows of knots.
Nains are made in most sizes but are most common in medium and large sizes. It must be noted that Nains are made in the areas surrounding Nain and not necessarily the town itself.
Nains utilize the Shah Abbas Design and make use of flowing design such as flowers and tendrils.
Nain qualities are categorized according to the number of warp threads. This is counted by opening the threads until you reach the very last individual one, and count how many in each strand. Among the finest is 4 La, which basically means that there are 4 strands in each
Nain also come in medallian-and-corner , hunting or garden designs.
Nowadays Nain itself only produces very fine 4 or 6 La quality. Other 9 La and 12 La are produced mostly in Khorassan region i.e. Kashmar, Mashhad, etc. Very fine Nain also being produced in province of Gilan and Mazandaran in North of Iran in Caspian Sea. Good Nain (4 or 6 la) are considered to be a good investment. By far the most famous and influencial Nain masterweaver is Habibian, and rugs produced from his workshop are among the finest and most sought after carpets in the World.
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