Cream and Gold Oushak Hand-Knotted Wool and Silk Rug, Ottoman Series

This model is no longer made. Has Halı wove it — a mill with a long record in dense Turkish hand weaving — at 217 × 301 cm (7'1" × 9'11"), in first-shearing Erzurum fleece with pure cocoon silk in the pattern, cream and beige under gold, on the double Turkish knot.

Oushak drawing is the source, reworked rather than reproduced, and at this size the pattern has the room to be read the way it was designed to be — the eye follows a line from a corner into the middle without interruption. Cream, beige and gold make a soft field on a pale floor and a strong one on dark stone; that is the same rug behaving in two ways, and it is worth deciding which of them you want before it is unrolled.

Silk is confined to the drawing and wool carries the floor. First-shearing fleece is the oilier, brighter clip, which is where the surface sheen begins before any silk is counted. Production of this model has ended, so the rug in front of you is the last of its kind rather than the first of a run — no second one is coming, and a size like this cannot be repeated. Washing is best left to a workshop.

• Hand-knotted in Diyarbakır and Erzurum by Has Halı; production discontinued.
• The pile is first-shearing Erzurum fleece; the motifs are pure cocoon silk.
• Double Turkish knot, at a high knot density.
• Cream and beige with gold, drawn from Oushak sources.
• 217 × 301 cm (7'1" × 9'11") — a large salon or a wide entrance hall.
• Soft on a pale floor, strong against dark stone or wood.
• Professional washing.
• One piece, and not repeatable.

The pattern it carries was old before the mill that wove it existed, and it will not look dated in a room in twenty years.