Rugsville Traditional Wool Black & Light Gold Carpet 8' x 10'

A black ground with a light gold pattern reverses the usual logic of the Persian carpet, where the field is light and the figure dark. Reversing it produces a different kind of object. The gold becomes the figure that reads from across the room, and the black settles the rug into the architecture rather than competing with it. The cartoon for this piece is contemporary Indian, working in dialogue with a long Persian tradition.

Three weavers spent close to five months at the loom. The wool is hand-spun, the black drawn from oak gall and iron, the gold from weld and pomegranate matured for two weeks in copper. Roughly 1.4 million asymmetric knots were tied and beaten against a cotton warp, then sheared by hand to a uniform ten millimetre pile.

The composition

Black field. Light gold central medallion and corner spandrels. A single guard band in faded ochre that rests the eye between the field and the room. Vegetable dye produces a slight irregularity in both colours, and that irregularity is the proof of the dye lot. Over the first decade the black will pull toward iron blue and the gold will lighten by a value, both shifts welcome.

What you are buying

Equivalent hand-knotted wool rugs in this construction are sold in Europe and the United States at three to four lakh. The piece appreciates with use rather than depreciating. There is no other domestic object that does that at any price, and certainly none that does it on the floor.

The piece in a room

8' x 10' (244 x 305 cm) suits a primary living room with a dark walnut floor or a formal study lined with bookshelves. The black ground holds its own against deep panelling and reads dramatically against white plaster. The gold figure picks up brass lighting and tobacco-coloured leather upholstery. The rug expects relatively few competing patterns in the room.

Conservation

Suction vacuum weekly. Rotate end to end each spring and autumn. Blot spills with a clean cotton cloth, never a coloured one. A specialist hand-wash every five years restores lanolin and removes the dust the suction cannot reach. The carpet runs three generations on this care.

Reference

• Medium: hand-knotted wool on cotton foundation
• Dimensions: 244 x 305 cm (8' x 10')
• Construction: Persian asymmetric knot
• Hands: 3 weavers, ~5 months
• Pile: 10 mm hand-spun wool
• Dye: vegetable (oak gall and iron, weld, pomegranate)
• Colour: black and light gold
• Origin: India

Free delivery across India. Cash on delivery available. 7-day exchange.