Rugsville Tribal Wool Green Red Carpet 9' x 12'

Tribal carpets predate the workshops. Long before the Sultanabad commission rooms or the Manchester buying offices, families in the highland pastures wove rugs on horizontal looms pegged to the ground, drawing geometric motifs from memory rather than from paper. The Caucasian and west Persian tribes used green and red as their principal colour pair because madder root and indigo were the two most reliable dye plants in their region, and a yellow over-dye on the indigo gave the green. This rug carries that tribal vocabulary into a finely woven contemporary 9 x 12.

Three to four weavers worked the vertical loom for around six months. The pile is hand-spun wool on cotton warp, tied in Persian asymmetric knots row by row. Madder root for the red, indigo over yellow weld for the green, walnut hull for the brown, and oak gall for the deeper outline tones were each matured in copper vessels for two weeks before the wool was lowered. After clipping the rug spent four days in sun and a long mineral wash that mellowed the saturation toward antique register.

The composition

A field worked in stepped lozenges and small stylised animals, drawn freehand. The dominant values are a deep madder red ground and a forest-green field within stepped medallions. Cream, walnut, and a touch of indigo fill the negative spaces. The border is a triple band of running rosette and stylised hook motifs in the same palette. The geometry breathes; the lines do not rule. That is the trace of weavers working from memory rather than from a cartoon.

What you are buying

Antique tribal carpets at this scale and condition reach twenty to fifty thousand US dollars at international auction when they appear. This rug is woven on the same loom architecture, in the same fibre, with the same plant-dye discipline. At one and a half lac it sits at a fraction of the auction comparable and appreciates with use rather than depreciating.

The piece in a room

9' x 12' (274 x 366 cm) anchors a primary living area or a long dining room. The bold red and green hold their own against panelled wood, brick, or chalk plaster. Pairs with walnut casework, brass detail, leather, and a single large saturated work above the sofa.

Conservation

Rotate the rug a half turn each spring and autumn. Vacuum weekly, suction only. Blot spills at once with clean cotton, never rub. Hand-wash by a trained wool conservator every six years. With this care the piece runs nine decades.

Reference

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

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