2'8" x 9'8" Silk Hereke Design Runner Rug | Ivory & Teal Medallions on Black | Brand New

This is a pure silk runner, hand-knotted stitch by stitch on a silk foundation, drawn in the Hereke manner and made in China by a workshop that weaves at a fineness most floors never see. At 2'8" x 9'8" it is long, narrow and low in pile, with a surface that catches light the way satin does rather than the way wool does. It has never been used, the ivory silk fringe is full and untouched, and the original workshop tag is still attached as shown in the final photograph. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming that it is genuinely hand-knotted, along with its size, material and origin.

Design and Motifs

The field carries 4 large scalloped rosette medallions set end to end down the length of the runner, each one built from radiating lobed petals that fan out from a small dark rosette core. Look closely at any single petal and it is not a flat shape at all: each is filled with its own miniature arabesque, a tangle of hooked vines, split leaves and tiny blossoms outlined in a single line of gold. Slim pendant finials link one medallion to the next so the eye travels the full 9'8" without stopping. Behind them the ground is covered edge to edge in a fine turquoise vinescroll, dense enough to read as texture from standing height and as individual curling stems up close. The main border runs a classic palmette and curling vine procession with rounded blossoms at the turns, framed inside and out by narrow guard stripes of ivory, lilac and gold. The corners resolve cleanly, which on a border this fine is the mark of a drawn cartoon executed by a weaver who knew what to do with it.

The Black Ground, Teal Tracery and Ivory Medallions

The base of the field is a true black, and every other color in the rug is read against it. Over that black runs the vinescroll in two strengths of blue: a deep petrol teal for the heavier stems and a bright soft turquoise for the fine curling tips, which is what gives the ground its shimmering, almost watery movement. The medallions rise out of that dark ground in ivory and pale ice blue, warmed with beige, light brown and small strokes of old gold in the inner tracery, and centered on a brown-gold rosette. The main border is a deeper sea green than the field, with the palmettes picked out in gold and a soft lilac that repeats in the narrow guard stripes at each edge, a quiet, slightly dusty tone that keeps the whole runner from reading as a straight blue and white piece. The ivory fringe at both ends closes it off crisply. It is a dark, jewel-toned rug rather than a bright one, and it sits especially well against pale stone, oak or a light painted corridor wall.

Hereke Drawing, Silk Weaving and Where It Belongs

Hereke is a design language before it is anything else: a court style built on very fine knotting, curved line work and medallions filled with microscopic detail, and it only works when the knot count is high enough to carry it. This runner is a faithful rendering of that tradition, woven in China, where the best contemporary silk-on-silk workshops now produce work at a fineness that supports drawing of this kind. Silk warps allow a much smaller knot than cotton, which is why the petal outlines here hold a single clean line rather than stepping, and why the pile can be clipped so low that the design looks printed until you touch it. That low pile and the hard-wearing nature of silk laid over a silk foundation make it practical as well as decorative, and a 2'8" width is exactly right for a hallway runner, a long entry or a gallery corridor where it is seen up close every day. If you are weighing this style against a village weave, our guide on the difference between a Persian and an Oriental rug is worth a few minutes before you decide.