Kazak weavers worked on horizontal ground looms set up indoors during winter. The wool was hand-spun from local flocks, the dyes drawn from madder root, indigo, and oak gall, and the design came from memory and from older rugs in the household. Nothing was drafted on paper. The composition was negotiated between weavers row by row.

The loom carried this piece for several months. Hand-tied knots at approximately 120 per square inch on a cotton foundation. Hand-spun wool dyed in small lots from madder root, indigo, oak gall, and walnut hull, each batch matured in copper vats for two to three weeks before the wool was lowered.

The composition

Latch-hook diamonds run the long axis of the rug. The warm madder grounds the composition; the ivory works as relief above it. Vegetable-dyed wool gives the colour a slight irregularity that flat synthetic dye cannot match. Over the first decade the reds will warm and the ivories will move toward bone.

What you are buying

Antique nineteenth-century Caucasian Kazaks of comparable scale and condition appear at Christie's, Sotheby's, and Rippon Boswell at hammer prices between $8,000 and $25,000 when they appear at all. This is a new weaving in the same tradition, on the same loom, in the same vegetable-dyed wool. The rug appreciates with use rather than depreciating, and there is no other object you put on a floor with that property at any price.

The piece in a room

At the size as listed, the rug works as the central composition of a room arranged around it. Mid-tone walls hold the saturation. The warm madder carries warmth into the architecture without competing with upholstery or art.

Conservation

Rotate twice a year. Vacuum suction only. Blot spills, never rub. Keep the rug out of permanent damp and away from radiators. Hand-wash every five years by a conservator who understands wool and vegetable dye. The rug will run a century and pass to the next generation.

Reference

• Medium: hand-knotted wool on cotton foundation
• Dimensions: size as listed
• Construction: symmetric (Turkish) knot, hand-tied
• Pile: 10 mm, hand-spun wool
• Dye: vegetable (madder, indigo, oak gall, walnut hull)
• Origin: India

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