Rugsville Mashad Gold Black Wool Carpet 8' x 10'

About 2.7 million hand-tied knots. Roughly six months of work for three weavers sharing a vertical loom. That is what a Mashad of this scale and density actually is before it is described as a pattern or a palette. The labour is the price; the design is the reason the labour was undertaken.

The rug was woven in India in hand-spun wool on a cotton warp and weft, with the cartoon hung at the weaver's eye. The dyestuffs were prepared from madder, indigo, weld, walnut hull, and pomegranate skin in copper vats, matured for two to three weeks before the wool was lowered. The pile was sheared by hand to a uniform 10 mm in a final pass with long flat shears, and the fringes were knotted into the warp ends rather than sewn on as a separate piece.

The composition

An old gold ground with a black central medallion and corner pendants, edged by a deep guard band that contains the field. The gold is not the bright yellow of contemporary dye but the warm, slightly green-shifted tone that comes from weld over an undyed base. The black holds depth because it was over-dyed in two baths rather than printed once. Saturation builds rather than diminishes with age, the way oil paint cures rather than dries.

What you are buying

An antique Mashad of comparable size, knot count, and condition trades through European salerooms at $20,000 to $40,000 on the rare occasion one comes through clean. This is a new piece in the same fibre, on the same construction, in the same tradition. The carpet appreciates with use rather than depreciating; almost no other object placed on a floor shares that property.

The piece in a room

8' x 10' (244 x 305 cm) anchors a primary living room or sits beneath an eight-seat dining table with the field showing on all sides. Gold ground rugs lift dim rooms and warm cool ones. Pairs naturally with walnut, brass, leather, and cream linen. White walls flatten the colour; warm plaster or pale clay paint lets it carry.

Conservation

Rotate the carpet a half turn twice a year so light and traffic age the surface evenly. Vacuum weekly using suction only with the beater bar off. Blot spills with a clean dry cotton cloth, never rub. Engage a wool-trained conservator for a hand wash every five to seven years. Maintained this way, a hand-knotted wool carpet of this construction runs eighty years and beyond.

Reference

• Medium: hand-knotted hand-spun wool on cotton foundation
• Dimensions: 244 x 305 cm (8' x 10')
• Construction: Persian asymmetric knot
• Hands: 3 weavers, 6 months
• Pile: 10 mm
• Dye: vegetable (madder, indigo, weld, walnut, pomegranate)
• Origin: India

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