Cream Floral Handwoven Viscose and Wool Rug, Emirgan Series

Viscose in the warp, wool in the weft: that division is what makes Cream Floral Handwoven Viscose and Wool Rug, Emirgan Series look silky and feel soft at the same time. Purple, cream and green flowers over a pale cream ground, made by experienced hands in western Türkiye, on the Aegean. There is only this one.

Two fibers here, doing two separate jobs. Viscose is plant-based, with a bright smooth filament, and running it through the warp puts a low light behind every knot; wool in the weft supplies the give underfoot. The result is a pale rug with more depth in it than a pale rug usually has — the purples read almost inky by lamplight and go soft and dusty by day. Against light-colored furniture the flowers become the strongest color in the room; over a dark parquet floor the whole surface lifts.

The Aegean is where the finest Turkish rugs were made and where a diminishing number of weavers still make them. The fringes on this one are braided closely by hand at both ends, slower than machine binding and the reason the ends look finished rather than cut. What follows from the viscose is a rug that will not tolerate wet cleaning: dust it with a vacuum and leave water to the professionals.

• Handwoven by Aegean weavers in western Türkiye.
• Viscose warp for the sheen, wool weft for the softness.
• Purple, cream and green flowers over a pale cream ground.
• Fringes braided by hand at both ends.
• The purples deepen by lamplight and soften in daylight.
• Reads best over dark flooring and beside pale furniture.
• No wet cleaning at home; specialist washing only.

Fewer weavers work this way every year, and each rug that comes off an Aegean loom is a little further from being replaceable.