Cream Bukhara Hand-Knotted Silk and Viscose Rug

Turkmenistan is where this was knotted, and the drawing on it is the one the Western trade sells under the name Bukhara: rows of octagonal gül medallions marching across a cream field. A hand-knotted rug in silk and viscose, 115 × 175 cm (3'9" × 5'9").

01What Wool does

One of one, and it is not a wool rug. The gül is the Turkmen tribal medallion — an octagon quartered into blocks of color, drawn a little differently by each group and repeated in strict rows rather than arranged around a center.

02Knot by knot, by hand

Bukhara is the market city these weavings were traded through, which is how a Turkmen pattern acquired an Uzbek name in English. On a cream ground the effect is quieter than the usual deep-red version: the medallions read as structure rather than as ornament, and the field between them is where most of the light in the rug comes from. Silk and viscose, not wool, which is the fact to be clear about. A traditional Turkmen village weaving is wool on wool and feels dense and dry in the hand; this one is smooth and cool and takes light the way a satin does, and it will show a footmark where a wool rug would not.

03What the yarn is

That is the trade the fiber makes. At 115 × 175 cm it suits the foot of a bed, a study, or a wall — and a piece of this kind gets sent to a professional for washing rather than to a machine. What is a gül in a Turkmen rug? A gül is the octagonal medallion that gives Turkmen weaving its structure.

04A line from the archive

Each tribal group drew its own version, quartered inside into blocks of color, and the medallions are set in strict repeating rows across the field rather than arranged around a single center. Why is a Turkmen rug called a Bukhara? Bukhara is the Central Asian market city through which Turkmen weavings reached Western buyers, so the trade attached the city's name to the pattern.

05Coming off the loom

The rugs themselves were made by Turkmen weavers, not in Bukhara. Hand-knotted in Turkmenistan, 115 × 175 cm (3'9" × 5'9"). Silk and viscose — there is no wool in it. Cream ground with rows of octagonal Turkmen gül medallions. Smooth and cool in the hand, with a sheen a wool rug does not have. It will hold a footmark; brushing the pile clears it. Professional washing. A single piece, and older Turkmen work in this drawing is getting harder to find. Hung on a wall it stops being a rug and becomes a record of how one tribe drew an octagon, which may be the better use for it.