Rugsville Hand Knotted Opera Gold Silk & Wool Carpet 8' x 10'

Silk highlighting in a wool field is the oldest luxury convention in oriental weaving, used in the court workshops of Safavid Persia and Mughal India to lift specific drawing elements above the plane of the pile and catch light from a different angle than the wool around them. The Opera design carried in this rug uses gold-toned silk against a wool ground in exactly that tradition, with the silk occupying the central medallion and the corner spandrels while the wool carries the field and border.

Three weavers shared the loom in India for roughly seven months. Around 1.9 million Persian-asymmetric knots were tied by feel against a vertical beam, the wool drawn from a long-staple fleece and the silk reeled from the cocoon and twisted before dyeing. The gold tone is a careful blend of weld and weak madder rather than a single yellow bath, which is why the silk reads as warm light rather than as a flat colour. The dye process used vegetable matter throughout.

The composition

A central medallion in gold silk floats above a soft wool ground, with corner spandrels in the same silk echoing the medallion at a quieter scale. The wool field carries vine work in soft madder and faded indigo, with a single deep guard band closing the border. The silk catches the light from one angle and disappears from the other, a behaviour wool cannot reproduce at any price. Over a decade the wool will mellow and the silk will hold its tone.

What you are buying

Silk-highlighted Persian carpets in this scale and density trade at international auction between thirty and seventy thousand dollars when honest examples appear. This is a new weaving in the same court tradition, in the same combined silk-and-wool construction, on the same loom geometry. The rug appreciates with use rather than depreciating, which is true of no other floor object at this price point.

The piece in a room

8' x 10' (244 x 305 cm) anchors a primary living area where the silk medallion can take direct daylight from a south-facing window. The gold and wool palette pairs with walnut and oak floors, with mid-tone walls, and with brass, leather, and unbleached linen. Place the rug where the silk is read at a slight angle rather than head-on, the way the original court pieces were always intended to be seen.

Conservation

Rotate a half turn each spring and autumn. Vacuum weekly with suction alone and the beater bar disengaged. Silk pile is more delicate than wool, so blot any spill at once with a clean cotton cloth and a single drop of water. A silk-and-wool trained conservator should hand-wash the rug every five years. The piece runs ninety years on a domestic floor.

Reference

• Medium: hand-knotted silk and wool on cotton foundation
• Dimensions: 244 x 305 cm (8' x 10')
• Construction: Persian asymmetric knot
• Hands: 3 weavers, ~7 months
• Pile: 9 mm wool with silk highlights
• Dye: vegetable (weld, madder, indigo, walnut)
• Origin: India

Free shipping across India. Cash on delivery available. 7-day exchange. The rug arrives crated for storage and relocation.