Persian Gabbeh with Checkerboard Center and Brown Banding

A checkerboard that has let its hair grow out.

This gabbeh with a checkerboard center and brown banding comes from Jiroft County, Kerman, Persia, present day Iran, in the Middle East, and dates to the early to mid 20th century. It is wool. Gabbeh are thick, loosely patterned rugs that village and nomadic weavers of southern Iran made for their own use, as warm bedding and floor covering in tents and homes. A shaggy pile of cream and dark brown forms squares around a central grid, ringed by jagged borders. Flat brown bands close each end, with loose fringe beyond. Fifty-two inches wide and seventy long.

It never did learn to keep its lines straight.