Rugsville Sultanabad Black Ivory Carpet 9' x 12'

About 3.4 million hand-tied knots. Roughly seven months of work for three to four weavers sharing a single vertical loom. That is the construction baseline for a Sultanabad of this scale before any discussion of design or palette begins. Sultanabad weaving was developed in the 1880s when European buying offices in western Persia commissioned local workshops to open up the dense classical floral repeat into wider fields with room to breathe. The drawing in this rug descends directly from that lineage.

The pile is hand-spun wool on a cotton warp. The wool is washed in soft river water and dyed in copper vats before the loom is strung. Indigo supplies the deep blue accents, madder the small rust notes in the border palmettes, walnut hull the warm browns, and oak gall the deepest anchors at the corners. The ivory ground is undyed wool blended from two fleece batches. Black is rare in Sultanabad weaving and is achieved by overdyeing brown wool with a tannin-rich oak gall bath, which gives the colour its slight warmth rather than the dead flat black of synthetic dyes.

The composition

A black ground carries an ivory all-over Sultanabad pattern of vining palmettes and rosettes drawn at large scale. There is no central medallion; the field reads as a continuous pattern from edge to edge. The border is layered: a narrow ivory guard, a main band in ivory palmettes against a softer black, then another narrow guard. The contrast between the deep black ground and the ivory drawing is the entire visual event of the rug. With age the black warms slightly toward charcoal and the ivory pulls toward bone, which softens the contrast into something more antique-looking.

What you are buying

Original Sultanabad carpets with strong drawing and black-ground rarity at this scale sell at Christie's and Sotheby's in the $35,000 to $90,000 range. The retail market on restored examples at Western dealers runs higher still. This is a new weaving in the same construction tradition, drawn from the same source vocabulary, in hand-spun wool on a cotton foundation. The price reflects weaver-months and material rather than secondary-market premium. The rug appreciates with use.

The piece in a room

9' x 12' (274 x 366 cm) is the canonical drawing-room scale and supports a full sectional plus loungers or a ten-seater dining table positioned above the field. A black-ground rug is unusual and carries specific architectural weight. It pairs well with pale plaster walls, where it acts as a graphic anchor, and with warm wood floors that frame the dark field. Avoid heavily patterned upholstery; the rug is the visual centre of the floor.

Conservation

Rotate a half turn twice a year so light and traffic age the pile evenly. Vacuum weekly with the beater bar disengaged, suction only. Blot spills immediately with a dry cotton cloth. A wool-trained conservator should hand-wash the rug every five years.

Reference

• Medium: hand-knotted wool on cotton foundation
• Dimensions: 274 x 366 cm (9' x 12')
• Construction: Persian asymmetric knot
• Total knot count: ~3.4 million
• Hands: 3-4 weavers, ~7 months
• Pile: hand-spun wool
• Dye: vegetable
• Origin: India

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