4' x 4' Chinese Hereke Rug | Silk | Round | Blue and Black

A 4' x 4' round rug, hand-knotted in silk in China to a Hereke design. At a glance it reads as one dark disc with a pale star at the centre: an ink black field, a pointed medallion in light blue and cream, and a wide teal border of curling vines, all ringed by a long ivory fringe. The silk gives the pile a shifting sheen, so the same area of field looks near black from one side and deep blue from the other.

Design

The centre is a many-pointed star medallion, each point filled with its own panel of fine scrolling vinework in cream and ochre on pale blue, converging on a small dark rosette of interlaced strapwork at the exact middle. The star sits on a black ground that is not plain: it carries self-toned blue arabesques worked so close that they only appear when the light moves. Around that runs a narrow lilac and black guard, then the main border, a turquoise band of large hooked cartouches and palmettes outlined in gold, with small upright flower sprays between them. Outside the last guard stripe an ivory skirt is knotted with alternating mauve and turquoise square blocks, and a small woven cartouche sits at one point of the circumference above the fringe.

Colour

The field is the darkest element, a black that the weave cuts with midnight blue tracery. Against it the medallion is a chalky light blue, almost powder, warmed by cream and a tobacco-coloured gold in the outlines. The border moves the blue toward turquoise, a clear green-leaning tone that carries the vine scrolls, and the guard stripes bring in a dusty lilac that also appears in the small flowerheads scattered through the cartouches. Ivory in the fringe and the outer skirt keeps the whole circle from closing in on itself.

Making

Hand-knotted with a silk pile, which is what allows the vine drawing inside each medallion point to stay legible at this scale, and what produces the two-tone effect across the black ground. The rug was woven in China to the Hereke pattern, a design associated with Turkish court weaving that Chinese workshops knot in silk at similar fineness. It is new and in perfect condition, with the fringe full and even all the way round.