Gray Oushak-Pattern Hand-Knotted Wool Rug, Şahzade Series

Scale is the signature of the Oushak tradition: the drawing is large, the ground is open, the motifs do not lean on one another. This rug carries that openness onto a gray ground. In the historical Oushak palette the field is usually red, so the gray is a new reading. Large flowers, palmettes and rosettes stand on fine stems across a mottled gray ground that shifts from tone to tone.

01The tone of the ground

The design is mirrored on the vertical axis: along a central turquoise stem, brick, orange, emerald and burgundy flowers open to both sides, with small blue and pink blossoms scattered between. The border is gray too, with small flowers and zigzag guard stripes on either side.

02From ground to pile

The gray ground gathers every color under the same cool light, so brick and turquoise sit side by side without clashing. Made in Afghanistan, with a narrow kilim band closing each short end; the yarns are wool, cotton and synthetic. 151 × 195 cm (4'11" × 6'5"), about 2.9 square meters (32 square feet): at the foot of a bed, or under the table in a small sitting room, where two armchairs can rest their front legs on its edge.

03After the color

The gray ground makes a calm background with a concrete-gray wall and light oak furniture; repeat the turquoise in a vase and the brick in a linen cushion, and the colors spread into the room. At the top, two lyre-shaped orange palmettes face each other across the turquoise axis; at the bottom, large toothed orange blossoms take their place.