Red Root-Dyed Hand-Knotted Wool Develi Şıhlı Rug

Madder root for the red and indigo for the blue, both of them plant sources rather than a chemical bath: Red Root-Dyed Hand-Knotted Wool Develi Şıhlı Rug, 124 × 223 cm (4'1" × 7'4"), woven more than seventy years ago in Şıhlı, a village in the Develi district of Kayseri.

01From ground to pile

Wool throughout, and one of it. Plant dye is recognized by what it fails to do, which is stay the same. One batch of madder gives a slightly different value from the batch before it, so a red field laid down over months moves in horizontal passes from brick toward a deeper wine and back again — abrash, in the trade's word for it. On a rug of this age the drift has had decades to settle and now reads as depth rather than as unevenness.

02Coming off the loom

Indigo does the outlining, and the drawing is central Anatolian: stepped forms, hooks, a border repeating one figure the whole way round. Everything in it is wool, pile and foundation alike, knotted in a village rather than in a workshop. Age is the thing to weigh here. Seventy-odd years puts it in the semi-antique band the trade uses — fifty to a hundred years — which no body issues or checks, and a rug of that age has thinner places, ends secured at some point by somebody, and a sheen along the walking lines that cannot be manufactured.

03Which tone on the ground

Keep it out of long direct sun, because plant color goes on moving. Cleaning belongs to a specialist in old rugs. Hand-knotted in Şıhlı, in the Develi district of Kayseri. Wool throughout, pile and foundation both. Root-dyed: madder for the reds, indigo for the outlining blues. The red moves in horizontal passes across the field, which is abrash. 124 × 223 cm (4'1" × 7'4"). Over seventy years old — semi-antique in trade usage, certified by nobody. Expect thin places, old repairs and a walking sheen. Keep it out of a sun path.

04The rule of care

Cleaning by an old-rug specialist. How old is a semi-antique rug? Fifty to a hundred years, in the usage this house follows. Antique means a hundred years or more, vintage covers roughly twenty to eighty, and new means new. No authority issues or checks any of these words, and dealers apply them somewhat differently from one another. Does plant dye fade? It changes. Madder and indigo go on moving for the whole life of a rug, drifting quieter and warmer rather than washing out, and strong direct sunlight speeds that along considerably.

05The tone of the ground

Keeping the rug out of a sun path is the single most useful thing an owner can do for it. The red it will be in twenty years is already on its way, and there is nothing anybody can do about that except keep the curtains half drawn.