The patchwork rug is a younger tradition than the weaving it draws on. Workshops in Turkey and northern Iran were the first to cut their grandmothers' rugs into squares and rejoin them under a single dye bath, treating a hundred years of provincial weaving as raw material for a new composition.

Each square was extracted from a parent rug 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 a single deep blue bath, 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

Up close, the rectangles disagree. One holds a cypress motif, the next a stepped medallion, the next an unornamented field. The overdye argues for a single read; the underlying pile keeps insisting on its sources. The tension is what gives the rug its energy.

What you are buying

A new piece in this tradition, with antique pile of comparable provenance and a properly executed overdye, lists at Sotheby's design auctions and Western dealer rooms in the $4,000 to $10,000 range. Direct workshop pricing in India removes the layers of margin that account for most of that gap.

The piece in a room

At 4' x 6' (122 x 183 cm) the rug occupies the floor between two facing chairs or anchors a small entry hall. The patchwork geometry holds at this scale because the squares are sized to be read at standing distance.

Conservation

Rotate the rug a half turn each spring and autumn so foot traffic and light age the surface evenly. Vacuum weekly with the beater bar disengaged. Blot spills with cotton, never rub. The seams are the structural element to watch; if a join opens, a wool conservator can re-needle it in an afternoon. Hand-wash by a wool specialist every five to seven 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 (a single deep blue bath)
• Origin: India

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