Ziegler is a workshop name rather than a place. In 1883 a Manchester-based firm called Ziegler & Co. opened a buying office in western Iran and asked local weavers to soften the dense floral repeats of classical Persian rug for the Anglo-American drawing rooms of the late Victorian era. The result was the open-field, pale-ground design now associated with the Ziegler label, and the round format takes that vocabulary and reorganises it around a central rosette.

A single weaver worked this 6' (183 cm) round on a circular drawloom in India for close to four months. The pile is hand-spun wool over a cotton foundation. The dyes were vegetable, prepared in copper vats from madder root, indigo, walnut hull, and weld, each batch matured for two weeks before the wool went in. Working in the round forces the weaver to turn the loom every few rows so that the pattern radius reads true from any angle, which is slower than rectangular work and accounts for the longer hands time on a piece this size.

The composition

The ground is the warm beige that the Ziegler tradition built its reputation on, achieved here by under-dyeing wool in a weak weld bath before working in pale rose and indigo accents. A central rosette holds the field together, with vine work spiralling out to a single restrained guard border. The colour will shift over the next decade, the rose deepening into oxidised salmon and the indigos settling, which is the slow patina that an honest vegetable-dyed rug develops with use and light.

What you are buying

Antique Persian Zieglers in good condition trade at Christie's and Rippon Boswell in the $8,000 to $20,000 range when they appear. This is a contemporary weaving in the same workshop tradition, on the same kind of loom, with the same fibre and the same vegetable dye process. The round format is harder to weave than the rectangle, which is reflected in the time on loom but not in the price. The piece appreciates with use rather than depreciating.

The piece in a room

A 6' (183 cm) round sits cleanly under a circular dining table for four to six, or as a hall centrepiece beneath a chandelier. The pale ground reflects light and lifts low-ceilinged rooms. Pair with curved seating, walnut, and warm metals. Strong rectangular furniture fights the geometry; the round wants to live with circular or organic forms around it.

Conservation

Rotate a quarter turn each season so light and footfall age the pile evenly across the radius. Vacuum on suction only. Spills blot with cotton, never rub. Hand-wash by a wool conservator every five to seven years. With this care, a hand-knotted Ziegler in this construction runs eighty years through normal household use.

Reference

• Medium: hand-knotted wool on cotton foundation
• Dimensions: 183 × 183 cm (6' round)
• Construction: Persian asymmetric knot
• Hands: 1 weaver, ~4 months
• Dye: vegetable (madder, indigo, walnut, weld)
• Origin: India

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