Vintage Patchwork Modern Overdyed Hand Knotted Area Carpet-Purple Passion 11081 8' x 10'

Purple Passion as a name belongs to the deeper end of the violet family, where the colour holds its weight under low light and reads as near-black under candle. The dye bath must be set carefully because purple is the easiest of the overdyes to drift into either red-brown or grey-blue, and the older wool absorbs the dye at varying intensities depending on its starting condition.

Older hand-knotted wool sections were recovered, sheared, and washed clean of their previous dye. Two artisans worked the dye phase over roughly four months, lowering each piece into a purple bath at controlled temperature for up to forty-eight hours. The patches were then sewn down on a cotton substrate by a finisher and the pile evened by hand to six millimetres in a closing pass.

The composition

A field of deep purple that shifts from patch to patch between aubergine on one side and a saturated royal purple on the other. The seams between patches read as quiet boundaries. Underlying carpet patterns ghost through as faint tonal differences rather than visible figures. Under daylight the purple reads as a single saturated tone, and under lamplight it settles into near-black velvet. Over two years the colour will deepen and the wool will polish under foot.

What you are buying

Patchwork overdyes from European studios at this scale are sold at four lakh and above through Western dealers. This is hand-knotted wool work in the same construction, sourced direct from the Indian workshop. The piece appreciates with use rather than depreciating, an attribute almost no other domestic object shares.

The piece in a room

8' x 10' (244 x 305 cm) anchors a sitting room with a low colour temperature, a primary bedroom, or a dining area arranged around a single dramatic table. The purple ground reads against cream plaster walls, against pale oak floors, and against jewel-toned upholstery in emerald or oxblood. It pairs with brass lighting and with art that uses warm earth tones.

Conservation

Suction vacuum every week. Rotate end to end each spring and autumn. Blot spills with a clean white cotton cloth pressed gently against the pile. Avoid bleach and strong solvents. A wool conservator should hand-wash the carpet every five years.

Reference

• Medium: hand-knotted wool patchwork, overdyed
• Dimensions: 244 x 305 cm (8' x 10')
• Construction: original Persian-asymmetric knot, re-stitched
• Hands: 2 artisans and 1 finisher, ~4 months
• Pile: 6 mm
• Colour: deep purple
• Origin: India

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