Rugsville Heritage Vegetable dyes Wool Carpet 6' x 9'

Vegetable dyeing is older than synthetic dyeing by several thousand years and survives in the heritage carpet workshops because nothing else gives wool the same depth of saturation or the same way of ageing. Madder root for the reds, indigo for the blues, oak gall and walnut hull for the browns and golds, weld for the yellows. Each dye lot is matured for two to three weeks in copper vats before the wool is lowered, and each lot is slightly different from the last.

This 6' x 9' (183 x 274 cm) heritage carpet was hand-knotted in India over roughly five months by a team of two to three weavers. The wool is hand-spun, slightly uneven by design, and ties the Persian asymmetric knot against a vertical beam. The foundation is cotton, drawn taut between selvedges. Every step from raw fleece to finished rug is done by hand.

The composition

A balanced field of soft rust, faded indigo, ivory, and aged gold worked into a vine and palmette repeat. The colours read first as a single warm composition and resolve into individual notes only on approach. The slight variation that vegetable dye produces, the abrash, runs as a band of lighter ground across one section of the field, the kind of accident that the trade calls a feature rather than a flaw.

What you are buying

Antique vegetable-dyed wool carpets in this size and condition trade in international auction rooms in the $10,000 to $30,000 band. This is a new weaving made to the same standard, with the same dyestuffs, on the same kind of loom. The rug appreciates with use rather than depreciating, and at this price the wool, the dye process, and the weaver-months involved are well below market.

The piece in a room

6' x 9' (183 x 274 cm) holds the centre of a sitting room under a four-seat sofa, or anchors a study with a partner desk and reading chair. The warm palette lifts cool grey walls and finds harmony with bleached oak, walnut, and unfinished brass. Direct sunlight will deepen the indigo and warm the rust over the first decade of use.

Conservation

Rotate the rug a half turn each spring and autumn to even the ageing of the dye under light. Vacuum weekly on suction only, no beater bar. Blot spills with a clean cotton cloth and avoid rubbing. A hand wash by a wool-trained conservator every five to seven years is the right interval for this construction. The rug is built to run a hundred years.

Reference

• Medium: hand-knotted wool on cotton foundation
• Dimensions: 183 x 274 cm (6' x 9')
• Construction: Persian asymmetric knot
• Hands: 2 to 3 weavers, roughly 5 months
• Pile: hand-spun wool
• Dye: vegetable (madder, indigo, oak gall, walnut hull, weld)
• Origin: India

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