The Rug Library

A Met carpet of the late 16th–early 17th century mixes Safavid Persian motifs such as ibexes, qilins and cloud bands with distinctly Indian features: palm trees, naturalistic animals and a bright red field.

Some Indian carpets recall 16th-century Herat carpets from Iran through serrated leaves around a palmette, but their lively flowers and rich colour point to Indian manufacture.

Smarthistory notes that India probably had no native knotted-carpet tradition before Muslim rulers arrived, and that the Mughals soon set up weaving workshops at their courts.

'Chahar bagh' is Persian for 'four gardens', a garden plan divided into four parts by water channels that garden carpets translate into woven form.

The Wagner Garden Carpet, woven in 17th-century Kirman, is counted among the oldest surviving Persian garden carpets and measures over 4 by 5 metres.

A Safavid garden carpet from Kerman, bought in Lahore in 1632 by Mirza Raja Jai Singh of Amber, is held by the Albert Hall Museum in Jaipur.

Cloud bands became an important motif on 16th-century Persian carpets, and designers of that era used them with particular elegance.

Under Akbar, royal workshops called farrash-khanas made kilims, jajams and shatranjis as well as knotted carpets, helped by skilled weavers arriving from Iran and Central Asia.

Akbar's carpet workshops in Lahore and Agra were overseen by Persian master craftsmen and known for designs drawn from nature, with detailed flowers and animals.

Seventeenth-century carpets from Mughal India and the Deccan sultanates show motifs travelling through cultural and trade exchange with Iran, the Middle East and Europe.

The Canadian Conservation Institute advises that large textiles such as rugs be stored rolled, with heavy rugs supported on a sealed dowel or metal pipe through a tube so the roll does not rest on its own weight.

Once a textile is rolled for storage, conservators recommend covering it with muslin, cotton sheeting or acid-free tissue and tying it loosely with twill tape rather than tight cords.

Light damage to textiles is cumulative and irreversible: ultraviolet radiation yellows and weakens fibres and fades many dyes.

Light damage depends on total exposure (lux × hours), so 100 lux for 400 hours does roughly the same damage as 50 lux for 800 hours.

Museums commonly light sensitive textiles at no more than about 50 lux and filter out ultraviolet light; even so, the most light-sensitive colours can fade within a few years of continuous display.

The Smithsonian's Museum Conservation Institute suggests textile storage at about 18–20°C with relative humidity below 65%, ideally 50–55%, kept stable because swings make fibres repeatedly swell and shrink.

Mould growth on textiles is encouraged by relative humidity of about 65% or more, warmth and poor air circulation; dehumidifiers and fans help reduce the risk.

Attics, basements and cupboards against exterior walls see large swings in temperature and humidity and are not recommended places to store textiles.

Clothes moth and carpet beetle larvae feed on wool and other keratin-based fibres, and can also attack silk, cotton or synthetics where soiling is present.

Clothes moths lay eggs within a textile's weave; the larvae either tunnel through, making holes, or graze the surface, thinning yarns and weakening the structure.

Museum pest-management guidance notes that holding an infested object at a low enough temperature for long enough will kill common textile pests, which is why controlled freezing is used as a non-chemical treatment.

Conservators advise inspecting woollen items regularly for pests and quarantining newly arrived textiles so insects are not introduced to a collection.

The Institute of Conservation advises that a rug showing signs of pests be wrapped in polythene to isolate it from other textiles and that a conservator be contacted.

The Institute of Conservation notes that light weakens fibres as well as fading dyes, and that silk is the most vulnerable fibre, so rugs are best kept out of direct sunlight.