Rugsville Traditional Wool Red & Ivory Carpet 9' x 12'

Red and ivory is the palette that defined the European drawing room from about 1880 to the First World War. The Heriz workshops of north-west Persia produced thousands of carpets in this register for export through Tabriz, and the surviving examples are now the centre of gravity in every major sale of decorative oriental rugs. The composition here draws on that lineage, refined by a contemporary studio working from antique reference cartoons rather than commercial pattern books.

Three to four weavers shared the loom for around six months in India. The structure is a Persian-style asymmetric knot tied through cotton warp and weft, around 2.6 million knots in total. The wool is hand-carded and spun into a medium-weight yarn that takes the madder red to full saturation while keeping the ivory creamy rather than chalky. Dyes were prepared in copper from madder root, walnut hull, and indigo, then matured before the wool was lowered.

The composition

A central medallion in soft red sits on an ivory ground, framed by spandrels filled with curling vinework. The border is a single deep red band carrying classical herati turtles in cream and black. The interplay between the two principal colours is the work of the rug. Over a decade the red will mature into a warmer carmine and the ivory will warm into bone. The contrast deepens rather than dulls.

What you are buying

Late-Heriz carpets in red-and-ivory at this scale clear international rooms in the range of fifteen to thirty-five thousand US dollars when they appear with sound condition. This piece is a new weaving in the same tradition, on cotton foundation, in vegetable-dyed hand-spun wool. It functions as both an object you walk on and an object that holds its place on the secondary market for the next half century.

The piece in a room

9' x 12' (274 x 366 cm) is the working scale for a drawing room with a deep sectional or a dining table seating ten. The ivory field reads warmest against pale plaster or limewash walls. The red wakes brass, oxblood leather, and walnut without fighting them. Sunlight is the rug's friend, restoring saturation that interior light slowly thins.

Conservation

Turn the rug end for end every six months so wear distributes evenly. Vacuum weekly with suction only. Treat spills immediately by blotting downward with cotton, never rubbing. Schedule a hand wash by a wool-trained conservator every five to seven years. Stored properly the rug runs eighty to a hundred years and outlives the room it was bought for.

Reference

• Medium: hand-knotted wool on cotton foundation
• Dimensions: 274 x 366 cm (9' x 12')
• Construction: Persian asymmetric knot
• Hands: 3-4 weavers, 6 months
• Pile: 10 mm hand-spun wool
• Dye: vegetable (madder, walnut, indigo)
• Origin: India

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