Gray and Brown Vintage-Pattern Handwoven Wool Rug, Retro Series

Walk around it and it changes: from one side this Retro Series vintage-pattern rug is bright and lit, from the other dark and matt. Handwoven in wool on a cotton warp, in gray, gold and brown, 207 × 287 cm (6'9" × 9'5") — knotted in Pakistan. One piece.

That reversal is the pile direction, and it is what the Retro Series is built around. The drawing underneath it is Oushak, several centuries old, redrawn here in colors nobody was using for it then — a gray field with gold coming through the motifs and brown holding the outlines. In a room with two light sources you get both states at once, one half of the floor bright and the other deep. The effect is strongest on a plain floor and in a room where furniture is not pushed to the walls.

Wool over a cotton warp gives this rug a thin body with a great deal of strength in it, which is the combination the older weaving centers always favored for large sizes. Weavers in Pakistan tied it with the double knot, set close together, with a trace of recycled synthetic yarn worked into the skeleton for strength, and the piece was then dyed and washed by the series' own method — that finishing step is what puts the gloss on it, and every Retro rug goes through the same one. From a living room to an office it takes traffic without flattening. Keep the cleaning in professional hands.

• Handwoven in Pakistan, double knot, densely set.
• Wool pile on a cotton warp — thin in the hand, strong underfoot.
• A trace of recycled synthetic yarn in the skeleton, for strength.
• Oushak motifs redrawn in gray, gold and brown.
• The surface reads bright from one direction and matt from the other.
• The gloss is produced by the dyeing and washing applied to every piece in the series.
• 207 × 287 cm (6'9" × 9'5") for a living or dining room.
• Professional washing.
• One piece.

Photographs of it disagree with each other, and all of them are right.