Rugsville Oushaks Traditional Floral Gray Wool Persian Carpet 12' x 18'

An Oushak in grey reads against the genre's traditional palette. The fifteenth-century carpets the name refers to were almost always grounded in ivory or warm earth, with the palmettes carrying the cooler tones above the field. The grey-ground modern Oushak is a contemporary reinterpretation, a reading of the same large-scale palmette geometry through a muted mineral palette that suits a current interior in a way the saturated rust-and-ivory original sometimes does not. The drawing remains classical, the palette is the only departure.

This 12' x 18' (366 x 549 cm) carpet sat on the loom for close to nine months under five weavers. Around 4 million hand-tied Persian asymmetric knots on a cotton foundation. The pile is hand-spun highland wool, drop-spindled so the yarn carries the slight irregularity that gives an Oushak its patina. The grey ground was struck in copper vats from indigo softened with walnut hull and a long iron after-bath, the cool guard tones from a deeper indigo, the soft accents from weld over an alum mordant. Each dye was matured for two to three weeks before the wool was lowered into the bath.

The composition

A mid-grey field carries an open repeat of large palmettes and connecting vine in ivory, deeper grey, and a cool soft yellow. The palmettes are drawn at the generous scale that distinguishes an Oushak from a tighter workshop pattern, three or four palmettes across the width of the rug rather than thirty. The border is restrained, a single deeper grey guard band against an ivory turn. The grey will lighten over the next decade as the wool ages, and the ivory will warm slightly into bone, deepening the contrast.

What you are buying

Antique original Oushaks from the late nineteenth century in this 12' x 18' format, with comparable construction and palette discipline, sell at Christie's, Sotheby's, and Rippon Boswell between $25,000 and $55,000 when they appear at all. This is a new weaving in the same tradition, on the same kind of loom, in hand-spun vegetable-dyed wool to the same density. The rug appreciates with use rather than depreciating. No other floor object holds that property at any price tier.

The piece in a room

12' x 18' (366 x 549 cm) is the canonical formal scale, the rug for a long dining room with a twelve-seat table, an open drawing room with two facing sectionals, or a library hall with a central reading bench. The grey ground holds against limewashed walls in bone, warm plaster, or pale terracotta. It pairs with walnut, oak, and limestone floors, with brass, aged nickel, and bronze hardware, with linen and leather upholstery in any natural register.

Conservation

Rotate a half turn every spring and autumn so light and foot traffic age the wool evenly. Vacuum weekly on suction only with the beater bar disengaged. Blot any spill with a clean cotton cloth, never rub. A wool-trained conservator should hand-wash the carpet every five years. With this care, the rug runs ninety to a hundred and twenty years and outlives its first owners.

Reference

• Medium: hand-knotted hand-spun wool on cotton foundation
• Dimensions: 366 x 549 cm (12' x 18')
• Construction: Persian asymmetric knot
• Hands: 5 weavers, ~9 months
• Pile: 9 mm
• Dye: vegetable (indigo, walnut, weld, iron)
• Origin: India

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