Rugsville Tibetan Wool & Silk Lilac Carpet 2' x 3'

Hand-knotted carpets in this tradition begin with a cartoon: a graphed drawing in the scale of the eventual rug, used by the weaver as a knot-by-knot map. Cartoons in this idiom are usually drawn by a senior designer, then handed to the loom for months of execution. The relationship between the original drawing and the finished pile is the relationship between a score and a performance.

This piece was hand-knotted in India by a single weaver. The work ran for six to eight weeks on a vertical loom, with the wool pile tied row by row against a cotton foundation and the comb beating each row down before the next was begun. The pile is sheared after the field is complete, the back washed and dried, and the fringes finished by hand.

The composition

A measured palette holds the field in balance, with the drawing carried by tonal shift rather than high contrast. The colour is layered rather than printed, which is what gives the field its quiet depth. The composition is balanced rather than busy, with the ornament weighted to leave the field room to breathe. The rug works at the scale of the room rather than at the scale of the inspection.

What you are buying

This is the entry point to hand-knotted collecting. The rug is woven on the same kind of loom and to the same craft standards as pieces several times its price; the difference sits in the design lineage rather than in the labour. The piece holds its value through use rather than depreciating.

The piece in a room

At 2' x 3' the piece works as an accent: in front of a fireplace, beside a bed as a single side runner, or under a console table where the geometry registers from above. Pairs with a restrained palette in upholstery and walls so the rug carries the room's colour.

Conservation

Rotate the rug a half turn each spring and autumn so light and traffic age the piece evenly. Vacuum weekly with the beater bar disengaged; the bar abrades knot heads on a hand-knotted pile and shortens the life of the rug. Blot spills with a clean cotton cloth, never rub, and reach for a wool-trained conservator for any wash rather than a generic carpet cleaner. With this care the piece runs eighty to a hundred years and outlives its first owner.

Reference

• Medium: hand-knotted New Zealand wool on cotton foundation
• Dimensions: 2' x 3' (61 × 91 cm)
• Construction: asymmetric (Persian) knot
• Hands: a single weaver, six to eight weeks
• Pile: 8 to 12 mm wool
• Origin: India

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