Rugsville Antiquity Green Ivory Wool Carpet 5' x 8'

The Antiquity carpet line was developed to recreate the surface character of nineteenth-century floor pieces that have lived through three or four generations of household use, that softness of palette and slight irregularity of weave that no amount of new manufacture can fake without it looking forced. The trick is in the dye chemistry: vegetable pigments matured for two to three weeks in copper vats, applied to wool that has been pre-washed in a mild alkaline bath so the fibre opens before it takes the colour.

Two weavers and a finisher carried this rug across roughly four and a half months on an Indian vertical loom. The wool is hand-spun, on a cotton foundation, with a knot density in the moderate range that allows the green ground to breathe while still holding the ivory pattern crisp. The dyes were prepared from indigo for the green base with a yellow lift from weld, and ivory was left undyed so the pattern reads at warmer wool tone rather than bright bleached white.

The composition

A muted antique green field, with ivory medallion work, vine arabesques, and a quiet border in deeper indigo green. The pattern is loose and breathing rather than packed, in keeping with the late nineteenth-century pieces it descends from. The green is not a single saturation but a small range of tonal variation across the field, the kind of irregularity that comes from hand-spun wool taking dye unevenly. That variation is the visible signature of a real vegetable-dyed carpet.

What you are buying

Antique green-and-ivory floor pieces of this character clear European auction at $3,500 to $7,000 when offered in stable condition, and they appear less often each year as the supply tightens. This is a contemporary weaving in the same tradition, on the same kind of loom, in real wool over cotton, with the same vegetable dye chemistry. The rug appreciates with use rather than depreciating, and the green softens toward sage over the decades rather than fading flat.

The piece in a room

5' x 8' (152 x 244 cm) sits comfortably under a dining four-top, in a primary bedroom against a queen mattress, or as the central island of a small study with two armchairs. The green-and-ivory palette pairs with cream walls, oak and walnut, brass fittings, and any restrained linen upholstery. It works particularly well alongside botanical lithographs, antique mirrors, and dark wood furniture in restrained quantities.

Conservation

Vacuum weekly on suction only, beater bar disengaged. Rotate the carpet a half turn every six months. Blot any spill with cold water on a clean cotton cloth, working from outside in. Avoid bleach and acid cleaners; both destabilise indigo and weld. A specialist wool wash every five years preserves the depth of the dye. Forty plus years of household use is realistic with this care, and the carpet remains conservable beyond.

Reference

• Medium: hand-knotted wool on cotton foundation
• Dimensions: 152 x 244 cm (5' x 8')
• Construction: asymmetric knot
• Hands: 2 weavers and 1 finisher, around 4 to 5 months
• Pile: 10 mm hand-spun wool
• Dye: vegetable, indigo and weld base
• Origin: India

Free shipping nationwide in India. Cash on delivery available. 7-day exchange window from receipt.