The magic of carpets
With a collection of more than 4,000 intricately woven antique rugs, a family business is bringing this ancient art form to a new generation
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“I love buying rugs, but I hate selling them,” says Bahram Javadi-Babreh, 67. His extensive collection of ornate carpets comprises more than 4,000 examples from Iran, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, China, England and Ireland.
Born in a small village in the mountains of north-west Iran, Javadi-Babreh began weaving rugs at the age of four, learning the skill with the help of his brother. Today, he runs Thames Carpets — a family business specialising in the buying, selling, weaving, cleaning and repair of antique handwoven rugs — alongside his 27-year-old daughter, Sophie.
He moved to England in the late 1970s to study mathematics at what was then known as Lincoln College of Technology. In 1981 he started work at Thames Carpets, then based in Oxfordshire and owned by David Benardout and Cecil Aigin, when a restorer at the shop accidentally removed the woven signature from a client’s Seirafian rug.
Threatened with being sued for £20,000 for damage, Benardout and Aigin commissioned Javadi-Babreh to correct the mistake. “From there, they started giving me repair jobs,” Bahram recalls. “I used to come to the shop and take the rugs to Lincoln every week.”
In 2001, when the owners retired, they handed over the business to Javadi-Babreh. “They didn’t charge me a thing,” he says. “They actually paid me to remove some things and they gave me some rugs.
“I’ve devoted my life to preserving the craftsmanship and culture behind these carpets.”
Sophie adds: “We’re always thinking about rugs. It’s kind of ingrained in us. My dad can’t go on holiday without looking for a rug shop.”
Sophie joined after leaving school in 2014 and has been building the brand ever since. She regularly shares playful and informative reels on Instagram, where the shop has more than 78,000 followers.
“It’s a really special project for me to have my dad’s knowledge and experience in the industry and to be able to adapt it to a current younger audience,” she says.
Javadi-Babreh is deeply passionate about upholding the art of rug weaving and uses 100% natural materials and dyes in his own creations. When he comes across damaged carpets at auctions, he buys them to turn into patchwork carpets.
“I love older rugs because they tend to use better-quality materials,” says Sophie. “They’re made from natural fibres and natural dyes, which make them so soft to touch.”
Though this carpet is less than 10 years old, the yarn dates back more than a century. The rug is crafted from old jijims — very fine kilims woven from natural coloured fibres. “We can’t get such vibrant colours from new dyes,” Javadi-Babreh says.
Durability is the key to a good rug, says Javadi-Babreh. “First, we look at the condition. We test everything, we see what happens when it gets wet. Does the colour run? Slowly, we figure out the faults with it.”
Javadi-Babreh is very particular about the yarn he uses. He says the wool must come from the back of the sheep and that it must not be cleaned with detergent, so as not to strip the fibre of its natural oil.
This pictorial rug, made in Tabriz, Iran, is one of Sophie and Bahram’s favourites. Based on an Azerbaijani folk tale, it depicts a woman named Sarah next to the river she grew up beside, and a shepherd watching her from a distance.
“Rugs are all I’ve ever known. I took them for granted as a kid because I didn’t know any different,” says Sophie. “But as I got older, I realised it was actually really special. We used to go to carpet auctions all over the UK and I remember begging my dad not to go. It’s funny that now it’s my favourite thing to do.”
The tassels seen on handwoven rugs are actually the foundation of the carpet — the underlying structure that the pile is woven on to — coming out of the ends. Each strand runs all the way from one side to another.
According to Javadi-Babreh, the most important marker of a valuable rug is colour. “There are no good carpets with faded colours. The really good rugs are colourful, with life in them. How fine a rug is, or where it comes from is not useful at all,” he says. “Colour is also the only thing you can’t copy.”
Antique English rugs are among Javadi-Babreh’s favourites because the wool tends to be extremely soft, fine and densely woven.
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