Silk and wool together is the oldest collaboration in the high-end carpet tradition. The wool gives the field its weight, its warmth, its ability to recover from foot traffic, and its quiet matte ground. The silk lifts the highlights, picks up light at a different angle, and gives the pattern its sheen against the steady wool field. The brown ground in this rug is built on that contrast, with silk threads worked through the wool pile so the design catches and releases light as you move past it.

Three weavers shared the loom for close to six months. Each Persian asymmetric knot was tied by hand against the warp and beaten flat with a steel comb. The wool is hand carded and hand spun for body. The silk is mulberry filament, which is the only silk fine enough to work alongside wool without losing its lustre. After weaving, the carpet was sheared by hand to expose the silk highlights against the matte wool ground.

The composition

A warm brown ground worked in classical motifs picked out in silk highlights. The wool reads as a steady field, the silk floats above it. As the angle of light shifts the silk passages move from honey to bronze to amber, while the wool stays anchored in a quiet brown. As the rug ages, the wool will warm slightly toward chestnut and the silk will deepen its lustre under foot traffic. The two fibres age at different rates, which is what gives a silk-and-wool carpet its long visual life.

What you are buying

Silk-and-wool carpets at this scale and with this density of silk highlight list with European dealers between 5 and 12 lac rupees. The construction is more demanding than pure wool because the two fibres take dye differently and require separate baths before they meet on the loom. The rug appreciates with use rather than depreciating, and the silk content actually deepens its lustre over decades of careful living rather than dulling.

The piece in a room

8' x 10' (244 x 305 cm) settles a primary living area or a generous formal dining room. The brown ground reads warm against ivory plaster, against limewash, against pale oak, and against terracotta floors. Pair with brass, with walnut, with raw silk upholstery, with leather, and with traditional or transitional furniture rather than aggressively modern pieces. The silk highlights respond best to lamp light and to morning sun.

Conservation

Rotate a quarter turn each spring and autumn so the silk passages age evenly. Vacuum weekly on suction only, never use a beater bar against silk. Blot any spill with cotton immediately, never rub. Have the rug hand washed by a silk-trained conservator every five to six years. Cared for this way the rug runs sixty to eighty years.

Reference

• Medium: hand-knotted wool with silk highlights on cotton foundation
• Dimensions: 244 x 305 cm (8' x 10')
• Construction: Persian asymmetric knot
• Hands: 3 weavers, ~6 months
• Pile: low to medium, hand sheared
• Origin: India

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