Antiquity Persian Begie Ivory Oriental Wool Carpet 8' x 10'

The Antiquity Oriental design vocabulary draws from the soft-tonal late nineteenth century Persian floral tradition that defined the carpets shown at the Vienna and Paris exhibitions of the 1890s. The brief was to keep the disciplined drawing of those exhibition carpets but to push the dye process slightly cooler, with beige and ivory grounds rather than the warmer cream and madder that the period favoured. This rug holds that brief, with a beige field carrying ivory floral tracery in a continuous all-over rhythm.

Three weavers shared the vertical loom for around five months. The loom held the rug for close to six months while four weavers traded shifts. The dye lots were drawn from walnut hull, pomegranate rind, oak gall, and a small amount of madder, each matured in copper vessels for two weeks. The ivory came from undyed wool sun-bleached over four days. After clipping the rug saw a long mineral wash to settle the contrast into a register that reads as already in use.

The composition

A warm beige field worked over with ivory vine and palmette in a wide all-over repeat. The accents are tobacco, faded umber, and faint madder. The border is a triple band held in tonal proximity to the field. The drawing reads at distance as a single composed wash and resolves on approach into individual rosettes and palmettes traveling on the diagonal. Faint horizontal abrash bands cross the field as the trace of small-batch plant-dye work.

What you are buying

Antique Persian carpets in the beige and ivory register reach twenty-five to fifty-five thousand US dollars at international auction when condition matches. This rug shares the loom architecture, the Persian knot, the long-staple wool, and the plant-dye discipline of those antiques. At one and a half lac it appreciates with use rather than depreciating.

The piece in a room

8' x 10' (244 x 305 cm) sits cleanly under a primary seating arrangement with all front legs of the sofa landing on the wool. The soft palette pairs with washed oak, brushed brass, raw linen, chalk plaster, and a single large work in saturated colour above the sofa. The rug calibrates to the architecture rather than dictating to it.

Conservation

Half-turn the rug each spring and autumn. Vacuum weekly, suction only. Blot spills at once with clean cotton, never rub. Hand-wash by a trained wool conservator every five to six years. With this care the rug crosses eighty years.

Reference

• Medium: hand-knotted New Zealand wool on cotton foundation
• Dimensions: 244 x 305 cm (8' x 10')
• Construction: Persian asymmetric knot
• Hands: 3 weavers, ~5 months
• Pile: hand-spun wool
• Dye: vegetable (walnut, pomegranate, oak gall, madder, undyed ivory)
• Origin: India

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