Black Medallion Hand-Knotted Silk-Blend Rug

Black Medallion Hand-Knotted Silk-Blend Rug: a black ground with a red-and-cream medallion at its center, 167 × 241 cm (5'6" × 7'11"), tied by hand in China out of cotton, viscose and silk. The field around the medallion is filled with small floral work and closed by a red and beige border.

01Color that shifts through the day

Black is uncommon as a ground in classical drawing. This is a rug, not a model. The medallion is drawn in cream and red, and it reads as the only warm thing on the piece until you notice the border, which repeats those reds at a smaller scale and stops the black from swallowing the ends.

02How it feels underfoot

Silk in the pile is what makes the surface move: stand at one end and the black is nearly wet, walk to the other and the same black goes flat and matt, and the medallion seems to travel with you. That behavior belongs to the fiber, not to a finish applied over it. Knotted entirely by hand in China, at a count running into the hundreds of thousands, on a cotton foundation with viscose and silk through the surface. The blend is the whole argument of the piece: pure silk rugs cost what they cost, and this reaches for the same sheen and the same thinness at a different level of the market, which the house says rather than calling the rug silk.

The pile is fine and shallow, so there is little depth for dust to settle into and the rug is light to lift. Washing is a specialist job. Tied by hand in China; the knot count runs into six figures. Cotton foundation with viscose and silk in the surface. Black ground, cream-and-red medallion, densely worked floral field. Red and beige border closing the field at every edge. The sheen turns from wet-looking to flat depending where you stand. 167 × 241 cm (5'6" × 7'11") — a sitting room or a wide hall. Thin and light; simple to lift and to vacuum. Professional washing.

03Color, by the light

A single piece. Black grounds get chosen for rooms that already have enough going on, and this one was drawn to be the calm thing rather than the loud one.