Blue Oushak-Pattern Handwoven Wool Rug, Mihman Series

Oushak drawing on a blue ground, layered rather than centered: a handwoven Mihman Series wool rug, 299 × 429 cm (9'10" × 14'1"), with roughly 2,000 knots in every ten square centimeters, wool across the whole surface and a foundation that is mostly cotton. Oushak lies in western Anatolia, and its floral repeats have been copied for four centuries.

The motifs spread across the field in layers, each in its own register of color, so the pattern has depth before any single figure is picked out. A wide border in warm earth tones runs round the outside and does the structural work — it draws the line between the blue and the room, and it is what makes the center legible. Twelve square meters of pattern in a furnished room could easily become noise; here the border keeps the whole thing as one object.

Knot density is why the drawing holds together. At that count each motif keeps its own edges instead of blurring into its neighbor, and the density is also why a piece this size takes months rather than weeks. The pile is entirely wool and full to the hand. Underneath it the foundation is predominantly cotton, strengthened by a trace of synthetic yarn — which the house states rather than glossing over.

• Handwoven entirely by hand, with roughly 2,000 knots per ten square centimeters.
• Wool over a foundation of mostly cotton, given strength by a little synthetic yarn.
• 299 × 429 cm (9'10" × 14'1") — a large salon or a reception room.
• Layered Oushak motifs on a blue ground, framed by a wide earth-toned border.
• The drawing comes from Oushak, a weaving region in western Anatolia.
• Months of weaving per piece; the knot count is the reason.
• The pile is full and dense enough to keep its shape for years.
• One rug. Washing belongs to a specialist.

What does "Oushak pattern" mean?

Oushak — Uşak in Turkish — is a weaving town and region in western Anatolia. Its rugs are known for large-scale floral and medallion drawing in soft color, woven there since the fifteenth century, and the pattern family is now made in several other countries as well.

How dense is 2,000 knots per ten square centimeters?

It works out at about twenty knots to each square centimeter, which is a high count for a wool rug of this size. Density of that order is what allows fine floral motifs to keep their outlines instead of blurring, and it is also why the weaving runs to months.

A rug of this area either organizes a room or defeats it, and the border is what decides which.