Rugsville Damsa Kashmir Silk Hand knotted Red Carpet 6' x 6'

By the seventeenth century, the Mughal ateliers in northern India were producing silk carpets that rivalled the Safavid workshops of Isfahan in fineness and colour. The court favoured deep reds in the field, since red was the colour of imperial dignity in Persian and Mughal aesthetic codes alike, and red carried the floral and medallion compositions to their fullest visual saturation. The Damsa pattern in the piece in front of you carries that lineage into a 6' diameter silk round in red.

Two weavers worked this rug for around six months. The mulberry silk is reeled from northern Indian cocoons and twisted into a fine knotting yarn. The cotton warp and weft are stretched on a circular jig that maintains the concentric tension a round form requires. The dye palette runs through madder root for the red ground, indigo for the blue accents, and oak gall for the ivory and gold, all prepared in copper vats before the silk is lowered for staged dyeing.

The composition

A central rosette in ivory and gold opens into the deep madder red ground, with floral and tendril work radiating outward in radial symmetry. The border, also in red with an ivory and indigo guard band, follows the curve of the circumference. Silk reflects ambient light at every angle, so the red shifts between garnet and cherry as the viewer moves around the piece, and the floral motifs appear to lift or recede depending on the angle of the sun.

What you are buying

Pure silk hand-knotted round rugs in red at 6' diameter carry tags between 4,500 and 9,500 USD through Western specialists. The radial weaving technique is harder than rectangular construction, and pure silk in this density requires master-level skill. The rug appreciates with use rather than depreciating. Silk floral rugs develop a soft luster along the lines of foot traffic that machine equivalents do not produce.

The piece in a room

6' Round (183 cm diameter) sits at the centre of a foyer with a round centre table and a chandelier above, beneath a circular dining table for four, or as the floor for a sitting nook with a wing chair and side table. The deep red palette pairs with walnut, brass, ivory plaster, brown leather, and rich silk upholstery. Silk dyes hold best out of direct sun; an east-facing or curtained room suits the rug long-term.

Conservation

Rotate the rug ninety degrees every three months. Vacuum on the lowest suction setting with no beater bar and no brush. Blot any spill immediately with a clean dry cotton cloth, working from the edge of the spill toward the centre. A silk conservator should hand wash the piece every four to six years. Never machine wash, never steam, never use hot water.

Reference

• Medium: hand-knotted mulberry silk on cotton foundation
• Dimensions: 183 cm diameter (6' Round)
• Construction: Persian asymmetric knot, radial cartoon
• Hands: 2 weavers, ~6 months
• Pile: 5 mm
• Dye: vegetable (madder, indigo, oak gall)
• Origin: India

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