Cream Oushak Handwoven Wool Rug, Mahal Series

At 210 × 309 cm (6'11" × 10'2") this is a salon rug, big enough to carry a whole seating group. Cream Oushak Handwoven Wool Rug, Mahal Series: a cream field drawn as a garden — curling branches, leaves and small flowers — closed by a red border of much larger blooms.

01A line from the archive

One piece. The contrast between border and field does the work. Large flowers around the edge, fine ones in the middle, so the eye enters at the frame and travels inward instead of stopping at the center.

02Coming off the loom

The yarn was dyed by hand, and the cream drifts through ivory, beige and a faint honey across the width — a variation weavers call abrash, and one no industrial dye lot produces. Red at the border warms the whole thing and stops a pale field from reading cold. Pakistani weavers using the double knot made it, tying across two warps at a time, which is what holds a drawing this fine together.

03What Wool does

The surface is wool throughout. Under it sits a cotton foundation stiffened by a small share of synthetic yarn, and the house declares that share instead of calling the piece wholly natural. At this size it wants a room where it can lie flat and be seen — folded under a sofa it loses the garden.

04At the loom in in Pakistan

Professional washing, and no home remedies on a spill. Handwoven in Pakistan using the double knot. Wool surface; cotton foundation stiffened by a small share of synthetic yarn. Cream field of curling branches and small flowers; a red border of large blooms. Hand-dyed yarn gives an abrash of ivory, beige and honey across the field. 210 × 309 cm (6'11" × 10'2") — a living room, a salon, an executive office. Large enough to take the front legs of every seat in the room. Specialist washing only.

05Where it is laid

There is one of it. Rugs this size are usually bought for a room; this one is more likely to decide what the room does next.