Tribal weaving is the oldest layer of the rug tradition. Long before the court workshops formalised the floral repeats of the seventeenth century, nomadic weavers in central Asia were tying small geometric motifs into wool and silk runners that they could fold and carry between camps. This rug takes that older tribal vocabulary, the blurred ikat lattice and the off-axis medallion, and translates it into reclaimed sari silk at a scale the original makers would never have attempted.

Four weavers worked the loom in India for about six months. The pile is sari silk recovered from hand-loomed garments, washed, sorted by colour, and re-spun before being dyed in small lots. The knots are tied with the Persian asymmetric loop against a cotton warp and weft. Sari silk does not behave like mulberry silk. The strands are uneven and high-lustre, and that unevenness is what gives the field its slow visual movement under raking light.

The composition

A deep indigo blue ground built in two dye passes, the first a base of natural indigo and the second a softer wash that tunes the saturation. Ikat motifs in oxidised silver and pomegranate move in irregular vertical bands across the field with the soft dye fronts that resist tying produces. The borderless drawing pushes the rug into contemporary territory despite the antiquity of the technique. In lamplight the blue reads almost black at the corners and shifts toward navy at the centre.

What you are buying

A hand-knotted silk rug of this scale and design vocabulary trades through Western design galleries at three to five times the price you are looking at. This is a contemporary weaving made by hand in India in reclaimed sari silk, and the rug appreciates with use rather than depreciating. Silk pile patinas slowly into something closer to vintage velvet, and the value of the work compounds over the first two decades.

The piece in a room

10' x 14' (305 x 427 cm) makes a defined ground for a long dining table or for a double-sofa drawing room. Blue at this saturation works against pale plaster, against bone-coloured upholstery, and against polished walnut. It pairs poorly with strong patterns elsewhere in the room. The rug expects to be the only graphic element in the composition.

Conservation

Vacuum monthly with a soft hand attachment, suction only, never a beater bar. Blot spills with a clean white cotton cloth on contact and avoid scrubbing the pile. A silk-trained specialist should hand wash the rug every three to five years. Move furniture by lifting rather than sliding so the silk tufts are not crushed. With that regimen the rug has a working life of six to eight decades.

Reference

• Medium: hand-knotted sari silk on cotton foundation
• Dimensions: 305 x 427 cm (10' x 14')
• Construction: Persian asymmetric knot
• Hands: 4 weavers, ~6 months
• Pile: reclaimed sari silk, low cut
• Dye: small-lot resist (ikat) on the bobbin, indigo dominant
• Origin: India

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