Rugsville Kashmir Medallion Blue Red Silk Carpet 3' x 5'

Reverse the colour weighting of a classical Indian medallion and the design changes character entirely. With blue carried as the field and red reserved for the medallion centre and accents, the composition reads cooler, calmer, and less overtly devotional. This was a colour preference that emerged in the later Mughal courts as a refinement of the traditional vocabulary, and the Indian workshops have maintained it as a parallel line ever since. The piece in front of you sits in that lineage.

One weaver kept the loom for roughly eight months. Pure mulberry silk pile and silk foundation, the asymmetric Persian knot tied in the single-knot Indian technique against a vertical beam. Indigo for the field was prepared in deep cold vats and the silk was lowered over multiple successive baths to build the saturation in layers, since indigo on silk is a layered process rather than a single dip. The red of the medallion centre was drawn from cochineal, matured for weeks before the silk was committed to it.

The composition

A deep blue field carrying a central medallion in concentric red, ivory, and gold, with four palmettes marking the cardinal axes and arabesque vine work in ivory and red threading the negative space. Border layers carry cream guard bands either side of a main band in red. The silk reads as midnight indigo from one direction and as a softer, twilight blue from the other; the medallion's red catches the eye and pulls the composition together. Over years the indigo will deepen and the cream will warm, the way every silk Indian does.

What you are buying

Antique Indian silks of this colour inversion, with comparable knot density and intact condition, list with specialist dealers in the $5,000 to $15,000 band. This is a new weaving in the same lineage, on the same kind of silk-on-silk loom, at the same density. Eight months of single-weaver work and the cost of pure mulberry silk for both pile and foundation sit underneath the price. Silk on silk appreciates with use rather than depreciating; the rug is closer to a portable object of inheritance than to any conventional flooring purchase.

The piece in a room

3' x 5' (91 x 152 cm) sits at the foot of a writing desk, in a meditation alcove, beside a low chair as a focal point, or layered atop a larger neutral wool rug. The blue ground anchors a room with warm wood floors, brass detail, and ivory walls. Under low warm light the indigo deepens and the red medallion glows. Diffused daylight is welcome; long direct sun should be moderated to preserve the silk dye.

Conservation

Rotate a half turn twice a year. Suction-only monthly vacuuming. Blot spills with clean white cotton immediately, never rub. Silk-trained conservation cleaning every three to five years. Storage rolled face out, never folded. The silk will gain patina with use and the rug will outlast multiple generations of ownership.

Reference

• Medium: hand-knotted mulberry silk on silk foundation
• Dimensions: 91 x 152 cm (3' x 5')
• Construction: single-knot Indian, Persian asymmetric
• Hands: 1 weaver, ~8 months
• Pile: 5 mm silk
• Dye: natural, indigo field with red accents
• Origin: India

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