The Persian carpet vocabulary moved into the Indian subcontinent in the sixteenth century through the Mughal court ateliers, where weavers from western Iran were resettled and asked to translate their classical motifs onto Indian looms. The grammar stayed Persian. The hand became Indian. The resulting tradition has run in continuous workshop production for almost five hundred years and has produced some of the most sought-after carpets in the international market.

This brown piece was hand-knotted in India by 1 weaver over four months. The pile is hand-spun wool tied to a cotton foundation at about 140 knots per square inch, putting the total knot count for this 2'6" x 12' (76 x 366 cm) close to about 604,800 individual knots. Hand-spun yarn carries the fine variation that machine yarn never achieves, and the irregular grain is what gives the field its life under raking light.

The composition

A brown field carried with enough tonal variation that no two square feet of the rug read the same way. The geometry is set up so the eye moves across the surface rather than locking onto a single centre. Wool takes dye unevenly by design, and the resulting irregularities are the point of weaving the rug by hand instead of printing it. The composition rewards both the across-the-room glance and the close-range second look.

The piece in a room

The runner at 2'6" x 12' (2'6" x 12' (76 x 366 cm)) takes the corridor, the kitchen galley, the side of a bed, or the foot-of-bed bench. Long narrow rugs ask the eye to read the room lengthways and give the space its sense of progression. The brown register holds against both pale and saturated walls.

Conservation

Rotate a half turn each spring and autumn so light and traffic age the rug evenly. Vacuum weekly with the beater bar disengaged, suction only. Blot spills with a clean cotton cloth, never rub. A hand wash by a wool-trained conservator every five to seven years preserves the dye depth and the pile structure. With this care the carpet runs eighty to a hundred years and outlives its first owners. A pad underneath extends the life of both the rug and the floor below it.

Reference

• Medium: hand-knotted wool on cotton foundation
• Dimensions: 2'6" x 12' (76 x 366 cm)
• Construction: hand-tied asymmetric knot
• Knot density: ~140 KPSI
• Total knot count: ~604,800
• Hands: 1 weaver, four months
• Pile: 8-10 mm
• Dye: vegetable, hand-spun yarn
• Origin: India

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