What is a Gabbeh?

      By Penny Krieger  ©2008

Is this an incredible new designer we have yet to hear about? No, not exactly but good guess.

A Gabbeh is a particular type of hand-woven Persian rug. The word Gabbeh translates very closely to the words unfinished or unclipped.

In my article, "How to Buy an Oriental Rug" I have gone into detail on the difference between a Persian Rug and an Oriental Rug. To the uninitiated, a Persian rug is strictly from Iran or the former Persian Empire.

Gabbehs are woven in Southern Iran and characteristically have a very long pile, sometimes up to 2 or more inches and are not as tightly knotted as your classic Persian rug. Much thicker than the average handmade rug they are sometimes used for sleeping. With their very simple design elements they are perfectly suited for use in contemporary interiors. If carefully chosen they can go well with classic interiors but this is not a rug recommended for a formal room.

Gabbehs are filled with color. There is nothing subtle or understated about them. The beauty of these rugs is their unmistakable uniqueness. I have one Gabbeh with a herd of camels, another with only a few simple trees. I remember one in particular that had wine glasses positioned right next to the human beings on the rug!

Some of the older Gabbehs I have seen were woven with un-dyed wool, the colors of these being ivories, beiges and browns. These un-dyed rugs are not always available in the market today but only surface occasionally.

An Indo-Gabbeh is not a Gabbeh at all, but an attempted copy from India. These rugs are much stiffer in body and usually have very little, if any color variation, which comes from the hand-spun wool used in the Persian Gabbehs.

Gabbeh rugs are woven in villages of settled tribal groups, many of them descendants of Turkic speaking peoples. The best Gabbehs, woven with beautiful hand-spun Persian wool come from the areas near the Zagros Mountains in Southern Iran.

The creation of these rugs is most often done in the home, each one a unique and splendid presentation of the weavers' art.

Gabbehs in the past were never given their due by the old school. The dealers and merchants of yesterday often disregarded these beautiful, simple rugs as crude and unrefined. It was only recently (within the last ten to fifteen years) that any interest was expressed for these rugs at all. Now they are much more widely recognized by many for their beauty and charm.

 

Penny Krieger is the owner of Paradise Oriental Rugs, Inc., located in the San Francisco Bay Area in Sonoma County . Her gallery at 137 North Main Street , Sebastopol , CA , specializes in tribal rugs and carpets woven with hand-spun wool and plant based dyes with a strong emphasis on Persian tribal rugs. 707-823-3355 http://www.paradiseorientalrugs.com