6' x 9'2" Chinese Kashan Rug | Wool and Silk | Black and Ivory

This is a 6' x 9'2" rectangular rug hand-knotted in China, with a wool and silk pile worked in the Kashan design. At a glance it reads as two things: a near-black field carrying an all-over floral pattern, and a wide ivory border that frames it with a clear, bright edge. The drawing is dense but orderly, and the silk in the pile catches the light on the flowerheads so that parts of the pattern lift away from the dark ground.

The design

The field has no medallion. Instead a system of thin red-brown vines runs the length of the rug, branching into large palmettes, sunflower-like rosettes, small tulip and bud forms and long serrated leaves that curl back on themselves. Down the centre line the larger palmettes sit in a vertical column, with paired rosette roundels and a small eight-petalled flowerhead marking the middle, so the pattern is symmetrical without being a repeat of identical units. The main border holds alternating palmettes and open rosettes joined by a meandering vine, and it is held between narrow guard stripes of small flowerheads and leaf tips on the same ivory ground, outlined in dark brown.

The colour

The ground is black, and in the close-up photographs it carries a blue cast, closer to a deep blue-black than a flat soot black. Against it the pattern works in ivory and cream, soft apricot and salmon, a dusty blue-grey, sage and olive green, and burgundy used sparingly at flower centres and leaf outlines. The border is a warm undyed ivory, slightly creamy, which is what makes the field look as dark as it does. The red-brown vines are the only strong warm line in the field and they tie the scattered flowers together.

The making

The rug is hand-knotted, with a wool and silk pile, the silk showing as sheen on the petals and leaf tips rather than as whole motifs. The back photograph, taken against a twelve-inch rule, shows an even weave and a straight, tightly finished end above a pale natural fringe. It was woven in China in the Kashan manner, a design named for a Persian weaving town rather than for where this rug was made. The table records it as new and in perfect condition, and it is listed with the rest of our hand-knotted stock.