Rugsville Oushaks Traditional Floral Beige Wool Persian Carpet 2' x 3'

Oushak weaving in western Anatolia produced the great room-sized carpets that furnished European palaces from the sixteenth century onward. The school is identified by an open central field, soft saffron and madder ground, and large-scale medallions drawn with a relaxed hand. The pattern in this rug works inside that long tradition.

One weaver shared the loom for six to seven weeks. Around 103,680 knots in total, every one tied by feel against a vertical beam. The pile is long-staple New Zealand wool, spun in modest batches and dyed before it ever reached the loom. The dyes were drawn from madder root, indigo, walnut hull, and oak gall, prepared in copper vats and matured for two to three weeks before the yarn was lowered.

The composition

A beige ground in the low chroma the trade calls oatmeal, neutral enough to anchor strong upholstery. The pattern carries the open field and large-scale medallion vocabulary of the western Anatolian school, with the corner work simplified to a single quartered motif rather than the layered spandrel of the Persian schools. Wool of this grade settles into use rather than wearing out. The pile compresses, the colour matures, the surface picks up the small irregularities that distinguish a knotted carpet from a printed copy.

What you are buying

Antique Oushak carpets with comparable composition and pile, when they appear at all at Christie's, Sotheby's, or Rippon Boswell, sit in a price band that the new weaving in the same tradition will not approach for two generations. The rug appreciates with use rather than depreciating, which is a property no other object on a floor carries at any price. The cost per year over a sixty-year working life puts the piece below the cost of a printed reproduction with a five-year horizon. The list price of around Rs 35,000 reflects a workshop equivalent on the open market; the listed price brings the rug down to the level of a serious entry into collecting hand-knotted wool.

The piece in a room

2' x 3' (61 x 91 cm) sits as an accent at the foot of a bed, beside a sofa, or under a console. Pairs with oak, walnut, undyed linen, soft black ironwork, and the warmer white plaster that shares its temperature.

Conservation

Rotate a half turn each spring and autumn so light and traffic age the rug evenly. Vacuum weekly with the beater bar disengaged, suction only. Blot spills with a clean cotton cloth, never rub. Hand wash by a wool-trained conservator every five to seven years. With this care, the carpet runs eighty to a hundred years and outlasts its first owners.

Reference

• Medium: hand-knotted New Zealand wool on cotton foundation
• Dimensions: 61 x 91 cm (2' x 3')
• Construction: Persian asymmetric knot
• Knot density: ~120 KPSI
• Total knot count: ~103,680
• Hands: one weaver, six to seven weeks
• Pile: 10 mm long-staple wool
• Dye: vegetable (madder, indigo, walnut hull, oak gall)
• Origin: India

Shipping anywhere in India is on us. Cash on delivery available. 7-day return window if the piece does not sit right in the room.