The world famous carpet collection of the Museum für Angewandte Kunst includes six significant examples of so-called Polish Rugs. They reached Vienna through the activities of the Kaiser und Königliche Handelsmuseum (Imperial and Royal Museum of Commerce), but also through purchases by Count Czatoryki and Count Chorinsky and are with the Museum since 1922.
The name Polish Rug is misleading; when scholars conducted the first studies of
these carpets made with silk, gold and silver threads they assumed that they were manufactured in Poland by Armenian weavers. They came to this conclusion
because some of the carpets which were displayed at the World-Exhibition in Paris of 1878 carried Polish heraldic emblems. Further studies however showed that the carpets were of Persian origin. However, the name Polish Rugs remained as a designation of a particular category of the many different types of Persian carpets, thus making it possible to distinguish them.
The ornamentation of a “Polish Rug” consists of a fourfold design in
which each quarter is mirrored horizontally and vertically. Preferred motives are lanceolate and forked leafs, palmettes, buds as well as arabesques. The dominant colours are salmon pink, blue and green. Unfortunately most of the colours have strongly faded, making it difficult to visualise their original intensity of the colours. The gold and silver threads have faded as well – but they must have radiated an air of enormous splendour, which is characteristic for this type of carpets.
Experts assume that the carpets were produced in the sixteenth and partly in the seventeenth century under Safavid rule (1501-1731), and cite 1587 as the year the production began because this coincides with the accession of Shah Abbas I. They were manufactured in the workshops of the Shah at Isfahan, Kashan etc, and were first destined for the use of the court.
However, as a result of very active trade delegates, a number of these objects ended up in Europe e.g. Italy ( Treasury of San Marco), they were also used as diplomatic gifts. A great number of “Polonaise Rugs’ have survived in various collections, estimates give the number with 300 pieces worldwide.
 

based on German text by Waltraud Karimyan

Bibliography:

Spuhler, Friedrich-Karl; Seidene Repräsentationsteppiche der mittleren bis späten Safawidenzeit. Die Sog. Polenteppiche (Diss.), Berlin 1968