Rugsville Mashad Wool Green Red Carpet 8' x 10'

Mashad carpets take their name from a workshop tradition in north-eastern Persia that produced curvilinear medallion compositions on a generous scale, with palettes anchored in burgundy, deep green, and ivory. The lineage runs back to the late nineteenth century and the looms that supplied the courts and the wealthy merchant houses. The piece in front of you is a faithful descendant of that tradition, woven for a contemporary room.

The rug was made in India by three weavers over roughly six months. Each knot is tied by hand against a vertical beam in hand-spun wool over a cotton foundation, the weavers reading the pattern from a hand-painted cartoon hung beside the loom. The dyes were prepared in small batches from madder, indigo, weld, and walnut, matured in copper vessels for two to three weeks before the wool was lowered. The result is a pile that reads as paint rather than print.

The composition

A central medallion floats on a deep green ground, edged in old ivory and tied corner to corner with floral pendants in madder red. The border layers a primary rust band against secondary indigo guards. Green and red are the hardest pairing in the palette to keep elegant, and the rug solves it by sitting both colours against a softened ivory rather than against pure white. Saturation will deepen and the ivory will warm into bone over the years.

What you are buying

Antique Mashad carpets in 8' x 10' scale and good condition trade through European auctions in the $18,000 to $35,000 range. The construction in front of you matches that lineage, knot for knot, fibre for fibre, in a contemporary weaving. The carpet appreciates with use rather than depreciating, an unusual property for any object underfoot.

The piece in a room

8' x 10' (244 x 305 cm) takes a six to eight seat dining table or a full sectional with the field showing on all sides. The green and red palette wants warm wood floors, plaster walls in the cream to clay range, and lighting that is incandescent rather than cool. Dark walnut and cherry hold the saturation. White paint flattens it.

Conservation

Rotate a half turn each spring and autumn so traffic and light age the field evenly. Vacuum weekly with suction only and the beater bar off. Blot spills immediately with a clean cotton cloth from the edge inward. Schedule a professional hand wash by a wool-trained conservator every five to seven years. With this discipline the rug runs eighty to a hundred years.

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)
• Origin: India

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