Cream Oushak-Pattern Handwoven Silk and Wool Rug, Ottoman Series

Erzurum, in the high east of Anatolia, is where the wool for this rug was shorn — the first shearing, the one that comes off with the most lanolin in it. Cream Oushak-Pattern Handwoven Silk and Wool Rug, Ottoman Series: historic Oushak motifs redrawn on a contemporary field in cream, beige and gold, with pure silk worked into the pattern. One piece. A first-shearing fleece is finer and glossier than anything that follows it, and it is why this pile already has a soft light on it before any silk is added.

01Knot by knot, by hand

The Oushak drawing has been opened out and simplified — the motifs still come from the old weaving of western Anatolia, but the spacing is modern, so the rug never reads as a reproduction of anything. Cream and beige hold the field; gold appears at the joins; the brown in the palette anchors the whole thing against wood. Has Halı wove it, and the technique is the traditional Turkish double knot, tied symmetrically across two warp threads.

02From ground to pile

Silk is confined to the patterned areas, where it does two things at once — it takes color deeper than wool can, and it changes brightness as you walk past. This is not a rug for a dining table: silk in the drawing with food above it is a combination nobody wins.

03Coming off the loom

Silk is cleaned by people who know silk, and by nobody else. Woven by Has Halı in Türkiye, with the traditional Turkish double knot. First-shearing greasy fleece from Erzurum, with pure silk in the patterned areas. Oushak motifs, redrawn at contemporary spacing. Cream, beige and gold, with brown holding the palette down. The silk shifts in brightness as you cross the room. Better kept away from a dining table. Specialist cleaning.

04What Wool does

A single piece. Wool of this grade stopped being ordinary a long time ago, and a rug made from it outlasts the room it was bought for.