Vintage Patchwork Modern Overdyed Hand Knotted Area Carpet-Cyclamen 11072 4' x 6'

An overdyed patchwork is two acts of authorship laid over each other. The first weaver, sometime in the early twentieth century, set the pattern. The second hand, working a generation later, dissolves the original colours under a single saturating bath and lets the geometry come back through the wash.

Each square was extracted from a parent carpet in the eight to ten knot range per linear inch, washed to remove a century of foot traffic, and re-knotted into a new whole. The dye bath used for the overdye was cochineal at full strength, applied at low temperature so the underlying patterns survive the wash as ghosted geometry. 2 weavers shared the loom for roughly 3 months between cutting, re-knotting at the seams, and the dye work.

The composition

Colour is the unifier. Pattern is the texture under it. Some squares carry their original ivory grounds, lightened further by the wash. Others retain the rust and indigo of their first dyeing, now muted under magenta. The rug does not insist; it accumulates.

What you are buying

What the price reflects is the cost of the antique source carpets, the labour to cut and reassemble them, and the dye bath. The mathematics work out close to the cost of a new hand-knotted rug at the same density, without the long cultural depreciation that affects new production.

The piece in a room

4' x 6' (122 x 183 cm) is the foyer or accent scale. The rug works under a console, beside a bed as a runner companion, or at the foot of a reading chair. The magenta register sits comfortably against natural wood floors and lime-washed walls.

Conservation

Suction-only vacuuming, weekly. Half-turn rotation each season. Blot spills with cotton; the overdye is fast at the surface but a soaked spill can wick into the foundation. Hand-wash by a wool-trained conservator every five to seven years. Cared for this way, the rug runs sixty to eighty years.

Reference

• Medium: hand-knotted wool on cotton foundation, antique pile fragments rejoined
• Dimensions: 4' x 6' (122 × 183 cm)
• Construction: cut, re-knotted, and overdyed
• Approximate density: 100 KPSI across the reassembled field
• Hands: 2 artisans, roughly 3 months end to end
• Pile: 8 mm wool
• Dye: vegetable overwash (cochineal at full strength)
• Origin: India

Free shipping in India, with cash on delivery. Returns accepted within seven days.