Burgundy Oushak Hand-Knotted Wool and Silk Rug, Harem Series

Çınhar Halı wove this one for Halıcızade — a Turkish house whose rug designs have taken international awards, working to its own patterns. Burgundy Oushak Hand-Knotted Wool and Silk Rug, Harem Series, made in Türkiye from Erzurum wool and Bursa silk, in sizes from 131 × 186 cm (4'4" × 6'1") to 241 × 323 cm (7'11" × 10'7"). The drawing comes from Uşak in the Turkish west — Oushak in English — and it goes back to that town's fourteenth- and fifteenth-century patterns, redrawn at a modern scale rather than reproduced.

01The tone of the ground

Burgundy carries them. It is a color that behaves completely differently by daylight and by lamp: flat and almost brown at noon, deep and lit from within after dark, and the silk in the pile is what does the second half of that.

02Why it is timeless

Rugs from this series have been laid in government buildings for years, which tells you more about how they wear than any description of them will. Two materials are worth naming separately.

03How it feels underfoot

The wool is taken from Erzurum fleece, which is oily and therefore both strong and bright; the silk is real Bursa silk, and there is not much of it left in commercial weaving. They are knotted together with the double knot — the symmetrical Turkish knot, worked around two warps — which is slower than the alternative and holds the pattern edges sharper. Washing goes to a specialist and nowhere else. Hand-knotted in Türkiye by Çınhar Halı, to designs made for Halıcızade. Erzurum fleece wool blended with genuine Bursa silk. Classical Oushak motifs of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, redrawn. Knotted with the double knot, the symmetrical knot used across Anatolia. Burgundy ground that changes character between daylight and lamplight. Sizes from 131 × 186 cm (4'4" × 6'1") to 241 × 323 cm (7'11" × 10'7"). Award-winning designs in international rug design competition. Specialist washing only. What is the double knot? The double knot, also called the symmetrical or Gördes knot, wraps the pile yarn around two warp threads instead of one.

04From the hand of the weaver

It takes longer to tie and produces a firmer pile with cleaner pattern edges, and it is the knot used across most of Anatolia. Why does Bursa silk matter? Bursa has been the center of Turkish silk production since the Ottoman period, and very little of it now goes into rugs.

05The Wool on the surface

Silk from there is used here for the highlights in the pattern, where it reflects light the wool cannot and gives the burgundy its depth after dark. It is a rug bought once, and the reason to buy the larger size is that the pattern was drawn for it.