Rugsville Medallion Navy wool Carpet 8' x 10'

The medallion carpet is the oldest formal grammar in the Persian tradition and the one most closely associated with court patronage. A central form, framed corner spandrels, a layered border, and a field that exists to support and counterweight the centre. The grammar carried into the Mughal courts of India in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and never left the looms. The rug in front of you carries that lineage in a navy and ivory palette pulled toward a contemporary reading.

The carpet was hand-knotted in India over roughly six months by three weavers on a vertical loom. Hand-spun wool tied row by row in the Persian asymmetric knot over a cotton warp and weft. The dyes were prepared in small batches from indigo, madder, walnut hull, and weld, with the navy built by repeated dipping in a fermenting indigo vat to layer up the depth that single-dip dye cannot reach. The pile was sheared by hand to a uniform 10 mm in a final pass with long flat shears.

The composition

A deep navy field carries a central medallion in ivory and old gold, with corner pendants echoing the centre in reverse colour. The border layers a primary ivory band against secondary navy guards. Indigo holds depth and shifts subtly with the angle of light because the dye sits on the wool fibre rather than penetrating it through and through, which is also why vegetable indigo ages with such grace.

What you are buying

Antique Persian medallion carpets in 8' x 10' scale with strong indigo and clean condition trade through European salerooms at $20,000 to $50,000 depending on attribution. This is a new piece in the same fibre and construction, on the same kind of vertical loom, in the same dye tradition. The rug appreciates with use rather than depreciating, an unusual property among objects placed underfoot.

The piece in a room

8' x 10' (244 x 305 cm) anchors a primary living room or sits beneath a substantial dining table with the field showing on all sides. Navy carries against warm wood floors, against cream upholstery, and against brass detail. Pairs especially well with white plaster walls because the indigo lifts the wall colour rather than competing with it. Cool grey paint flattens the indigo; warm white or oat lifts it.

Conservation

Rotate the carpet a half turn each spring and autumn so the field ages evenly. Vacuum weekly, suction only, beater bar off. Blot spills with a clean dry cotton cloth, working from the outside inward. A hand wash by a wool-trained conservator every five to seven years keeps the cotton foundation supple and the indigo true. Cared for this way, the rug runs eighty years and acquires depth.

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 (indigo, madder, walnut, weld)
• Origin: India

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