Blue Medallion Hand-Knotted Silk Rug

It comes out of China, where hundreds of thousands of knots go into a single piece: a hand-knotted rug in silk, viscose and cotton, blue throughout the ground, with medallion figures gathered at the center and cream and red detail in the borders. It is thin, and it lies almost flush with the floor. The blue is the reason to own it.

01The feel of the surface

At the door it is calm and even; walk toward the window and it opens out, sky at one end of the range and something nearer deep ocean at the other, all from the same dye. The medallions are drawn in the classical manner — concentric, a little formal, each ring smaller than the last — and the red in the border is the only warm thing on the rug, which is exactly why it is there.

02Coming off the loom

Cream keeps the two apart. Every knot is tied by hand. Silk in the mix gives the sheen and the fineness; viscose extends it; cotton carries the foundation. That combination gets close to the drawing pure silk allows without being a pure silk rug, and the house would rather say so than let the word silk stand on its own. The pile is very short, so it sheds almost nothing, and the rug is fine enough to run under a door.

03Which tone on the ground

Wash it professionally and never at home — silk and viscose both lose their hand when they are soaked. Hand-knotted in China at hundreds of thousands of knots per piece. Silk, viscose and cotton — silk for the sheen, cotton for the foundation. Blue ground with a classical medallion arrangement and cream and red borders. The blue shifts from pale sky to deep ocean depending on where the light comes from. Very thin and low-pile; it will pass under most doors. Close to a pure silk rug in drawing, and honest about not being one. Professional washing only — soaking ruins the hand of both fibers. Fine rugs like this are usually kept out of the traffic, and then get moved into it anyway, because they are the only thing in the house that changes color when you walk past.