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

The drawing on this rug was taken from Oushak rugs of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It is a Harem Series piece from the Çınar Halı workshop, knotted by hand in Türkiye at 168 × 219 cm (5'6" × 7'2"), in Erzurum wool with real Bursa silk, tied on the double knot, in a soft cream.

Oushak is the weaving region in western Anatolia whose rugs turn up in European paintings from the fifteenth century onward. The motifs here take their lead from that early work and hold it in balance between a classical line and a modern one. The cream is soft rather than white, and the silk catches light at a different angle than the wool does, so the motifs come and go as you move around it.

Erzurum wool and Bursa silk are the two yarns the Turkish trade names when it is being precise about quality, and both are in this rug. The double knot puts two anchors under every tuft, which is what lets a piece built this way survive being walked on for decades rather than years. The knot count is high, and every one of those knots was tied by hand. Çınar Halı is one of the few Turkish hand-knotting workshops with an international record, and rugs at this weave class are getting harder to source. Only a washer who does this for a living should be allowed near it.

• Knotted by hand at Çınar Halı, in Türkiye.
• Erzurum wool and real Bursa silk.
• Double knot, tied at a high density — two anchors per tuft, and the reason it wears slowly.
• Drawn from Oushak weaving of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
• Cream, soft rather than white, with the silk catching light separately from the wool.
• 168 × 219 cm (5'6" × 7'2"), 3.7 m² (40 sq ft).
• Washing by a specialist in hand-knotted work, and nobody else.

At this size it is made for a large living room or an executive office, and it is at its best among dark furniture. It will sit under a dark table without disappearing, which is more than most pale rugs manage.