Rugsville Gabbeh Tribal Wool Multi Carpet 5' x 8'

About 950,000 hand-tied knots. Roughly four months of work for two weavers on a vertical loom. A Gabbeh is built around volume and colour saturation rather than around fineness of drawing, and the proof is in the weight of the finished piece. Lift one corner and you understand the construction; this is wool laid down in the count and density of a piece of clothing rather than the count of a decorative carpet.

The pile is hand-spun wool from southern Indian highland flocks, tied in the Persian asymmetric knot at a moderate density that lets the colour fields breathe. The dye work was small-batch with plant and mineral pigments, and the multiple colour blocks were laid out without a printed cartoon, the weavers working from memory and from a master drawing held by the workshop. The pile was sheared in two passes to bring the surface to an even sixteen-millimetre depth.

The composition

Bands and blocks of saturated colour, drawn from the tribal Qashqai and Lori vocabulary. Reds, ochres, deep blues, and ivory move across the field in irregular geometric segments rather than in a strict repeat. The colour relationships are blunt and direct, exactly the quality that draws collectors of contemporary art to this category. Over the first decade the dyes age toward each other and the contrasts soften without losing their definition.

What you are buying

Antique multi-colour Gabbehs of this scale and brightness, in clean condition, trade through specialist dealers at twelve to twenty-five thousand dollars. This is a current weaving in the same tradition, on a hand-built loom, in hand-spun wool, with the same knot density a period piece would carry. The rug appreciates with use as the wool develops its patina, and the multi-colour Gabbehs in particular are increasingly difficult to source as the workshops shift to plainer tonal work.

The piece in a room

5' × 8' (152 × 244 cm) anchors a study, a child's room, or a reading corner where the colour can do its work without overwhelming a larger field. The multi palette pairs well with white walls, warm timber, and confident modern art. Avoid placing the rug under heavily patterned upholstery; the carpet expects to be the dominant graphic element.

Conservation

Rotate every six months so daylight reaches all the colour blocks evenly. Weekly vacuum with the beater bar off. Spills should be blotted with clean cotton from the outside of the stain inward. Wool-trained conservator wash every five to seven years.

Reference

• Medium: hand-knotted hand-spun wool on cotton foundation
• Dimensions: 152 × 244 cm (5' × 8')
• Construction: Persian asymmetric knot
• Hands: 2 weavers, ~4 months
• Pile: 16 mm
• Origin: India

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