Rugsville Vegetable Dyes Classic Floral Wool Carpet 9' x 12'

Vegetable dyeing is the older and more demanding of the two ways to colour wool. Madder roots are crushed and matured in copper vats for weeks before the wool is lowered. Indigo is fermented in alkaline pits and oxidises only when the yarn is lifted into the air. Walnut hull, oak gall, pomegranate skin, and weld each ask their own preparation. The result is a yarn that does not match itself perfectly batch to batch, and that irregularity is precisely the point.

Three weavers shared the loom for around six months. Hand-spun wool, knotted against a vertical cotton warp in the classical floral pattern that travelled from Persia into the workshops of north India and stayed there. Total knot count works out to roughly two and a half million for the field, every one tied by feel.

The composition

A field of soft beige with floral repeats in muted green, terracotta, and deep madder rose. The border carries the same palette in a tighter rhythm. Because every yarn took dye slightly differently, the field carries a quiet variation across the surface that printed copies cannot reproduce. The rug ages forward. Over the next decade the madder will lighten, the indigo-greens will deepen, and the beige will warm into bone.

What you are buying

Antique vegetable-dyed floral carpets of this scale, in restored condition, sell through Western dealers between fifteen and forty thousand dollars depending on age and provenance. This is a contemporary weaving on a classical loom, in the same fibre and the same dye method. The rug appreciates with use rather than depreciating. There is no other floor object with that property at this price.

The piece in a room

9' x 12' (274 x 366 cm) is the canonical living-room scale. The rug expects a full sofa and chairs arrangement, or a long dining setting, with all furniture sitting on top of the pile rather than floating beside it. Walls in chalk, pale clay, or warm grey hold the palette in balance. Indirect daylight reveals the dye work; downlights flatten it.

Conservation

Rotate every six months. Vacuum weekly, suction only, beater bar off. Blot spills with a clean cotton cloth, never rub. Have the rug hand washed by a wool-trained conservator every five years. Cared for this way the rug will outlast eighty years of normal use.

Reference

• Medium: hand-knotted wool on cotton foundation
• Dimensions: 274 x 366 cm (9' x 12')
• Construction: Persian asymmetric knot
• Hands: 3 weavers, ~6 months
• Pile: 10 mm wool
• Colour: beige with green and terracotta floral
• Dye: vegetable
• Origin: India

Free shipping across India. Cash on delivery available. Seven-day exchange. Arrives crated and insured.