Master Art

A replica of the Safavid dragon and cypres carpets made in the workshops of PETAG, a German company that was active in and around Tabriz from 1911 till WWII.

The German company Petag, short for Persische Teppich AG, was founded in Berlin in 1911.
Under the inspiring leadership of Heinrich Jacoby a large workshop opened up in Tabriz
(North-West Iran).
The idea was to fight the decline in quality resulting from high commercialisation in production responding Western demand.
The result was excellent: thanks  to the use of extremely good wool and skilfully made vegetal dyes the company succeeded in reviving old and elegant designs from the 16th and 17th century.
The different qualities derived their names from the density of knots : Pertovi, Hamajun, Teimuri, Rustem and Cyrus. The workshop shut down in the forties.
 
Heinrich Jacoby remains an authority in the world of the Oriental carpet. In 1923 he publishes “Eine Sammlung orientalischer Teppiche”and in 1949 “ABC des echter Teppichs”. He also contributes to Arthur U. Pope’s massive work “A Survey of Persian Art” by supplying the section “Materials used in the making of carpets”.
 
An American missionary working in the area writes the following about the Petag-workshop in 1913 :
“This year brought a good thing to the poor people in Tabriz. A German firm opened up a carpet workshop, creating employment for a lot of people from town and the neighbouring villages. We are getting used to the sound of the steam whistle, calling the workforce in the morning and liberating them at noon and at night. And better still, we hear this sound six days a week, remaining silent the seventh, this way allowing employer and employees to observe the Christian day of rest.”
 
The Petag-rugs can easily be recognized by the shintamani-sign that is knotted in each piece.