xandex XANX-1 Black Wool Handmade Carpet 3'11" x 5'7"

Hand-tufted construction took its current commercial form in the United States after the Second World War, when the tufting gun made it possible to produce dense pile rugs in weeks rather than the months a hand-knotted equivalent demands. Indian workshops adopted the technique in the 1970s and have refined it for half a century, marrying the speed of the new tooling to the colour vocabulary of the older Persian and Mughal carpet traditions.

Construction took 4 weeks for two tufters and a finisher. After the pile was set, the back was coated with natural latex to lock the tufts and bonded to a cotton scrim. The face was carved by hand to relieve the black pattern from the field by two millimetres. The wool was sourced from Indian highland flocks, hand-spun into a four-ply yarn, and dyed in copper vats before reaching the tufting frame.

The composition

The black carries the field. The motif emerges as a tonal shift rather than a hard-edged graphic, which is the property that lets the rug sit in a composed room without claiming the eye. Up close, the carve work shows in the slight relief between figure and ground; at distance, the surface reads as a single saturated colour event.

The piece in a room

The rug suits a primary bedroom under the foot of the bed and the bedside passage, a sitting room arranged around a low coffee table, or a study floor under a single armchair and reading lamp. Black grounds are demanding; pair with high-contrast walls and minimal pattern in the upholstery. Walnut and oak flooring both suit the black register; lime-washed walls deepen the read.

Care

Weekly suction vacuuming. Spills lift with cotton and cool water if attended to within the first hour. Expect mild shedding for the first month of use as loose fibres work themselves out of the pile. A professional rug cleaning every three years keeps the black register at its full saturation and refreshes the pile lay. Avoid soaking the rug; the latex backing prefers surface cleaning to deep wet work.

Reference

• Medium: hand-tufted wool, latex bonded, cotton scrim backing
• Dimensions: 3'11" x 5'7" (119 × 170 cm)
• Pile: 12 mm
• Hands: 2 tufters and 1 finisher, about 4 weeks
• Wool weight: roughly 2.4 kg per square metre
• Origin: India

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