Dark Green Vintage-Pattern Handwoven Wool Rug, Retro Series

Its surface carries a sheen that knotted wool does not usually have, and the tones beneath it are dark rather than faded; that is what separates this Retro Series piece from the pastel ones. A handwoven wool rug, classical Oushak motifs in a modern green, worked by hand in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Single piece.

Where the series normally softens a traditional design, this one deepens it. The green sits at the dark end of the range and the drawing lives inside it rather than on top, so the pattern arrives after the color does. The shine comes from the wool itself and from how tightly the rug is woven, and it changes with the angle you stand at, which gives a flat floor some depth. In a room of dark furniture it adds weight instead of contrast, and that is the harder thing for a rug to do.

Dense weaving is the characteristic of this quality — the knots are packed close, which is why the rug feels solid rather than yielding. Wool is the whole of the surface. Underneath it, cotton takes the structure, and a trace of recycled synthetic yarn is spun into that foundation to strengthen it — stated here rather than left out. Small enough for a study or a bedside, hard-wearing enough for a corridor. Cleaning is a job for a rug washer.

• Hand-knotted in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
• Wool surface, over cotton with a little recycled synthetic yarn spun in.
• Classical Oushak motifs redrawn in a dark green range.
• Tightly woven, which is where the sheen and the solidity come from.
• Suits a study, a bedside or a corridor.
• One piece.
• Cleaning by a rug washer.

Dark rugs hide more than pale ones, which is a practical argument and rarely the one anybody makes out loud.