Ziegler & Company was the first company to produce handmade Persian carpets while catering to European tastes and needs – even accepting designs from Western retailers. What are considered as ‘Iranian’ patterns in carpets were “often affected by European imperialism and process of globalization”.
Kimia Maleki has described how Ziegler was “instrumental in shaping how rugs would be produced in Iran and what rugs would be woven in Sultan-Abad [their head-quarter] for the next fifty years”. The rise and decline of Ziegler is described as demonstrating “how the complex workings of globalization and European imperialism in Iran affected the conception, production, and circulation of the Persian carpet locally and internationally”.
Eventually Ziegler & Company eventually controlled some 2,500 looms, contracting weavers to use yarns that had been prepared in the firm’s own dye house at Kala, to better maintain quality control.
Carpet manufacturers like Ziegler wove “inexpensive carpets of low quality and cheap coloration due to the use of chemically-unsuitable ink colors, which were suitable for European and American markets”. Economic profitability was prioritised over quality. The companies involved included:
- The English- Swiss corporation, Ziegler & Company: initially established in Tabriz (1878) and then moved to Arak (Sultan-Abad).
- The Italian-English Company known as Near Co. Casteli Brothers.
Eastern Rug Trading Co. New York: established by international investers from England, Italy, Russia and Germany. - Oriental carpet manufacturing of London. (O.C.M): an English- Greek company in Kerman, Iran.
- Other exporting companies such as Tavshanchian Atie
Ziegler was liquidated in 1934, following huge financial problems during the First World War: “not only did Russian and German troops pillage Ziegler’s assets and holdings, but [there was] a delay in carpet transportation in the Persian Gulf … Robbery and pillage intensified when Russian, German and Turkish troops invaded Iran during World War I. Ziegler wrote letters of complaint to the British Embassy in Iran to request indemnity of the robbery and damage to its property… the complaints were left unanswered and ultimately the company was liquidated in 1934”.
Despite this, the particular colouring, design and motifs of Ziegler carpets lived on. The carpets continued to be produced by other companies according to European tastes, and are now highly valued in Western markets.