The Ziegler design originates with a Manchester firm that opened a buying office in western Iran in 1883. Its commission was simple. Soften the dense floral repeats of Persian classical tradition into a quieter, open field that suited the drawing rooms of late Victorian Britain. The pattern set down on this loom is a direct continuation of that long conversation between East and West.

Three weavers shared the loom for 5 months. Around 1.3 million hand-tied knots at roughly 200 per square inch, every one set against a vertical beam by feel. The pile is New Zealand wool, prepared in small batches and lowered into copper vats for plant-based dye drawn from madder, walnut, henna, and aged indigo, each colour matured for two to three weeks before the wool is dyed. The foundation is cotton, hand-spun and tensioned across the warp before the first row of knots is tied. The fringe at either end is the warp itself, knotted off and trimmed by hand once the rug comes off the loom. The piece reads at 2'6" x 18' (76 x 549 cm) in gold, finished in India.

The composition

Vinework in gold runs corner to corner with the irregular grace plant dye produces. The pattern is denser at the centre and opens toward the borders, so the eye reads the rug as a single composition rather than as a tile that repeats. The rosettes are drawn at a scale that registers from across a room without losing their internal detail to anyone who walks closer.

What you are buying

Antique Ziegler carpets of equivalent attribution sell at Rippon Boswell and Sotheby's in the range of thirty to seventy thousand US dollars when they appear at auction. This is a new weaving in the same lineage, on the same kind of vertical loom, in the same fibre. The rug appreciates with use rather than depreciating, which is a property no other floor object holds at any price.

The piece in a room

2'6" x 18' (76 x 549 cm) is the long-corridor and gallery scale. Few rugs in the catalogue hold their drawing across this length. The rug rewards a slow walk past it from one end to the other. The gold register pairs with traditional wood floors and contemporary polished concrete alike. In a hallway with art on the walls the runner sets the pace at which the eye moves down the corridor.

Conservation

Rotate a half turn each spring and autumn so light and traffic age the rug evenly. Vacuum weekly with suction only and the beater bar disengaged. Blot spills with a clean cotton cloth, never rub. Hand-wash by a wool-trained conservator every five years. With this care the rug runs eighty to a hundred years and outlives its first owners.

Reference

• Medium: hand-knotted 13-to-16 micron wool on cotton foundation
• Dimensions: 76 x 549 cm (2'6" x 18')
• Construction: Persian asymmetric knot
• Hands: 3 weavers, 5 months
• Pile: 10-12 mm
• Dye: vegetable and chrome blend, colour-fast
• Origin: India

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