The Atlas mountain tribes of Morocco wove their white-ground rugs as objects of daily use rather than as decorative pieces. The pattern was simple, the wool was undyed, the construction was thick and warm. Mytee draws on the geometric end of that vocabulary. A white field carrying a clean diamond or lattice drawing in soft black, no other colour, no border ornament, the rug entirely about the relationship between the white and the line.

One weaver worked this Mytee piece in size as listed across roughly two and a half months in India. Wool was hand-spun thick in the Atlas register, knotted in the Berber-style symmetric knot on a cotton foundation. The geometric drawing was charted onto the warp before knotting and worked in soft black wool against the undyed white ground. The pile was left at medium length and washed once to open the body of the rug.

The composition

An undyed white field carrying the natural slight variation of the fleece rather than the cold brightness of bleached wool. A geometric drawing in soft black, typically a diamond lattice or a long line repeat, runs across the field. Nothing else. The piece reads as a graphic at distance and as a wool surface at close approach. The white will warm to bone with light, and the black will settle into the field rather than reading as interruption.

What you are buying

Genuine white-ground geometric Berber rugs, of provenance and intact condition, sell at Western specialist dealers at multiples of this figure for comparable size. This is contemporary weaving in the same tribal register, by hand, in hand-spun wool. The hand-knotted piece appreciates with use rather than depreciating, gaining the soft patina that gives Berber its distinctive character on the floor.

The piece in a room

The white geometric Moroccan suits a primary bedroom under or beside the bed, a flat living area with light wood floors, a meditation corner, or a study with low seating. The geometric register pairs with curved upholstery, with raw oak, with limestone, with whitewashed plaster. Modern art in colour above it reads stronger than against a busy ground.

Conservation

Rotate end for end twice a year. Vacuum weekly, suction only, no beater bar. Blot spills at once with a clean cotton cloth. The white ground wants a wool-trained hand wash every five to six years. With this care the piece runs two generations of careful Indian use.

Reference

• Medium: hand-knotted hand-spun wool on cotton foundation
• Dimensions: size as listed
• Construction: Berber-style symmetric knot
• Hands: 1 weaver, ~2.5 months
• Pile: 12 mm
• Origin: India

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