Rugsville Moroccan Beni Ourain Rabat Ivory Carpet 12' x 15

Beni Ourain refers to a confederation of Berber tribes in the Middle Atlas mountains whose women have woven the same kind of carpet for at least eight centuries. Undyed cream wool, sparse charcoal-line geometry, generous pile, and a deeply personal cartoon developed by each weaver as the rug was being made rather than copied from a paper draft. The tradition entered the European design conversation through Le Corbusier, who used Beni Ourain rugs in his Cite de Refuge in 1933, and it has not left since. Rabat is a contemporary descendant in the Beni Ourain idiom, woven in India to the village vocabulary at a generous scale.

The loom carried four weavers across roughly eight months. Pile is undyed organic wool, hand-spun from village fleece and washed with rainwater rather than caustic soda so the natural lanolin stays in the fibre. Knots are tied long and loose against a vertical beam, then sheared to a high pile that gives the carpet its characteristic plush feel underfoot. The cartoon is sparse: thin charcoal lines crossing the cream ground at irregular intervals, drawn freehand rather than from a fixed cartoon.

The composition

An undyed cream ground that ranges from bone to soft ivory across the field as the natural fleece variation reads through. Thin charcoal lines cross the ground in a loose lattice, the lines hand-drawn so they vary slightly in weight and angle. There is no border, no medallion, no symmetry. The composition reads as a personal mark made with restraint. The cream will warm slowly toward bone over the years and the charcoal will relax into a soft graphite.

What you are buying

Antique Beni Ourain rugs at 12' x 15' (366 x 457 cm) with verifiable mid-twentieth-century Berber attribution and sound condition reach $20,000 to $45,000 in the European and US trade. This is a contemporary weaving in the Beni Ourain idiom, on the same kind of vertical loom, with the same hand-spun undyed wool and the same village cartoon discipline, sold direct from India. The piece appreciates with use as the wool relaxes and the cream warms.

The piece in a room

12' x 15' (366 x 457 cm) is the scale for a generous lounge, a primary bedroom with a king bed and reading chairs, or a large open-plan living space. The cream ground brightens any room and pairs particularly well with raw oak floors, lime-washed walls, leather in saddle and oxblood, blackened steel, and a single major work of contemporary or modernist art. The high pile is forgiving underfoot.

Conservation

Half-turn the carpet twice a year. Vacuum weekly with the beater bar disengaged, suction only. Comb the pile occasionally with a soft wool brush to lift the natural lanolin. Blot spills with bottled water and clean cotton. Specialist wool hand wash every five to seven years. The piece runs eighty to a hundred years.

Reference

• Medium: hand-knotted hand-spun undyed wool on cotton foundation
• Dimensions: 366 x 457 cm (12' x 15')
• Construction: Berber knot, high pile
• Hands: 4 weavers, 8 months
• Pile: 20 mm
• Dye: undyed organic wool
• Origin: India

Free shipping across India. Cash on delivery available. 7-day exchange.