The Golestan Palace World Heritage Collection serves as the premier reference for the study of Qajar-era carpets. The carpets within this collection can be classified into various categories based on dimensions, design, pattern, region of production, material composition, age, and historical period. A significant number of these carpets, particularly the large-format ones, were commissioned works. Among them, the carpet presented by Sultan Abdul Hamid II of the Ottoman Empire to Naser al-Din Shah Qajar is of particular importance due to the distinctive manner in which it was conserved and displayed, representing the first museological approach to carpets in Iran. The research methodology combined library and field studies focusing on the carpets of Golestan Palace, the Abdul Hamid carpet, and the White Palace (Kakh-e Abiyaz), alongside an analysis of visual and documentary materials available at the Golestan Palace Documentation Center.
with the entry of carpets into museums and private collections, their function changed, and new values such as historical and cultural significance were attributed to them. Gradually, they became subject to modern concepts of preservation and restoration. Many methods used for centuries by traditional restorers in repairing and maintaining carpets were deemed unnecessary for treating museum carpets. Consequently, most treatment decisions, guided by the principles of minimal intervention and reversibility, became synonymous with various stabilization techniques. Given the historical background and role of traditional restoration in the process of preserving and restoring damaged carpets from the past to the present, this question arises: Can museum carpets be conserved without considering the positive potentials of traditional restoration? Answering this question has always been one of the most important debates between advocates of traditional and modern restoration in the conservation of carpets with museum value. Accordingly, this article aims to precisely understand traditional restoration, its goals and duties, as well as its place in the conservation of museum carpets. This research is applied and based on library studies, collection and examination of case studies through field methods, and personal experiences. The results indicate that techniques commonly used in traditional restoration can play a significant role in treating museum carpets and ensuring their preservation and longevity. Moreover, there is a continuous professional relationship between traditional restoration and conservation.
Somayeh Samadian, Mehdi Razani, Volume 4, Issue 3 (12-2021)
Abstract
Carpet, as a piled and knotted hand-woven with a structure consisting of organic materials, is always exposed to damages during the various time processes of weaving, consumption, and storage. These can generally be divided into two categories of internal damages (how primary actions for preparing and dying fibers and also knitting are done) and external ones (defects during use and maintenance). Considering that the scope of the attitude is more on the samples in the museum and private collections, which apart from the aspect of consumption need favorable conditions for long-term protection, in this research, we tried to describe the four harmful factors and their sub-categories, which includes physical factors (light, atmospheric pollution and two factors of temperature and humidity), chemical factors (effect of acids, alkalis, oxidants), macroscopic biological agents (insects and rodents) and microscopic ones (fungi, molds and bacteria), to create a wider insight into the process of keeping these exquisite objects and prevent them from entering the structure.
