5'11" x 12'11" Pakistani Moroccan Rug | Wool | Taupe and Ivory

A long rectangular rug measuring 5'11" x 12'11", hand-knotted in Pakistan to a Moroccan design. The pile is wool at half an inch, and the close photographs show it sitting in distinct horizontal ridges rather than as a flat plane. At a glance the rug is taupe and ivory, with a chain of large diamonds running the length of the field and small flecks of pink, yellow, green and blue caught in their outlines.

Diamonds stacked the length of the field

There is no border. The pattern simply runs out to the edges, which is what gives the rug its modern look. Down the centre, six or seven large diamonds sit point to point, each one drawn as a double chain of tiny squares, with a plain ivory lozenge nested inside and a smaller diamond inside that. Where the big diamonds meet, the chains cross and carry on outward as half-shapes that disappear into the ground. Along both long sides runs a column of single small diamonds, alternating ivory, taupe and soft brown, spaced unevenly enough to read as hand-drawn. The lines wobble slightly from row to row, the two halves of the field do not mirror each other exactly, and both ends finish in a flatwoven band and a row of thick braided tassels.

Taupe ground, ivory figures, specks of colour

The ground is a greyish taupe, lighter where the ridges catch the light and closer to mushroom in the troughs. Against it the diamonds are ivory and undyed cream, pale enough to carry the drawing without hard contrast. What stops the whole thing going quiet are the accents: single knots of acid yellow, hot pink, turquoise, olive green and purple set into the diamond chains, usually two or three at a time, never in a repeating sequence. Two small blocks of near-black knots appear in the upper half of the field. The tassels are a plied charcoal grey, shot through with red and purple fibres, and one short charcoal block sits in the end weave just above the fringe.

Hand-knotted wool

The rug is hand-knotted, with a half-inch wool pile. The reverse, shown folded back in two of the photographs, is an even sand-coloured grid in which the pink, yellow and orange accent knots show through as single points of colour. The rug is new and in perfect condition, and still carries the weaver's label stapled to the back; it is among the recently woven pieces we stock rather than an old rug.