Agra carpets, in the seventeenth-century Mughal sense of the word, were the floor pieces commissioned by the imperial workshops to lie under the throne and the audience pavilions. Floral tendrils, angular vines, palmettes, and stars filled the field. The drawing was finer than village work and the colour palette was darker and more architectural. The Indian Agra revival of the nineteenth century kept that vocabulary alive in workshops that still operate today.

This 6' x 9' carpet was hand-knotted in India by two weavers over roughly five months. Hand-spun wool on a cotton foundation, vegetable-dye-compatible yarn batched against a master cartoon. The black ground is unusual in the Agra idiom and demands very tight dye control; over-saturation kills the field, under-saturation reads gray rather than black. The drawing above the black uses the classical Agra vocabulary of tendrils and palmettes in restrained ivory, ochre, and faded red.

The composition

A black ground, drawn over with floral tendrils, angular vine work, and rosette repeats. The black absorbs light, so the drawing reads as a luminous embroidery floating on a dark field rather than as a flat pattern. With age the black will warm slightly toward graphite and the ivory will mellow toward bone. The result is the most architectural of the classical Agra effects.

What you are buying

Antique Agra carpets with comparable drawing and condition trade at international auction in the range of $15,000 to $40,000 depending on size and provenance. This is a new weaving in the same tradition, on the same kind of loom, with the same vocabulary. As floor work in a household it appreciates with use rather than depreciating; the wool patinas, the drawing settles, and the black warms.

The piece in a room

6' x 9' (183 x 274 cm) is a scaled drawing-room rug for a flat or a smaller principal room in a house. The black ground pairs with cream and bone walls, brass lighting, walnut, and oxidised iron. It reads serious in a study, formal in a sitting room, and quiet against the warm wood floors of a traditional Indian house.

Conservation

Half-turn rotation each spring and autumn. Vacuum on suction, weekly, beater bar off. Blot spills with a clean cotton cloth and follow with a barely damp one. The black ground does not show staining as readily as a lighter ground but still benefits from prompt attention. Specialist hand-wash every five to seven years. The piece will run eighty to a hundred years with reasonable care.

Reference

• Medium: hand-knotted wool on cotton foundation
• Dimensions: 183 x 274 cm (6' x 9')
• Construction: asymmetric knot, Agra idiom
• Hands: 2 weavers, ~5 months
• Pile: hand-spun wool
• Colour: black
• Origin: India

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