Cream Oushak Handwoven Wool Rug, Harem Series

Two knots where most rugs use one: the double-knot technique is what this piece is built on. Cream Oushak Handwoven Wool Rug from the Harem series — Erzurum wool, woven in Türkiye, carrying Oushak motifs of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries redrawn for a modern floor, at 145 × 198 cm (4'9" × 6'6") and 171 × 219 cm (5'7" × 7'2"). Oushak — Uşak in Turkish, in western Anatolia — is the weaving region whose large medallions and open fields turn up in European painting from the fifteenth century onward, and the drawing here comes from that period rather than from the nineteenth-century revivals.

01Color, by the light

What has changed is the scale and the palette: a cream ground, the figures loosened, the framing simplified. It is a classical rug that a room without a single antique in it can carry. Erzurum fleece is soft, holds a shine and wears hard, which is the combination the eastern Anatolian flocks are valued for.

02Knot by knot, by hand

The double knot doubles the anchoring at each point of the drawing, and the result is a denser, heavier rug whose motifs keep their edges instead of blurring with traffic. It is woven for Halıcızade by Çınhar, a Turkish mill. Two pieces are in stock, one in each size, and their measurements differ because a knotted rug is finished at the loom rather than cut. Professional washing. Handwoven in Türkiye from Erzurum wool. Double-knot technique — denser and heavier, and the drawing holds its edges. Oushak motifs of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, redrawn at a modern scale. Cream ground with the figures loosened and the framing simplified. Woven for Halıcızade by the Turkish mill Çınhar. 145 × 198 cm and 171 × 219 cm, one piece of each. Professional washing. Most cream rugs go quiet in a room; this one keeps a pattern old enough to have been painted, and lets you use it anyway.