Turquoise Oushak Hand-Knotted Wool Rug, Şahzade Series

Şahzade Series Turquoise Oushak Rug, knotted by hand in wool — a clear, open turquoise ground carrying classical Oushak drawing in red, brick, mustard, navy and earth tones, over a cotton foundation. It measures 209 × 287 cm (6'10" × 9'5"), and there is one of it.

Each flower and each stylized branch sits at a regular interval, so the field reads as rhythm rather than as scatter. Fine borders close the ground on all four sides and the transitions between them are soft, without a hard line anywhere. The drawing has been given a faded finish, which is what allows a classical composition to sit in a modern room instead of arguing with it. Wool takes light unevenly by nature, and on a ground this pale the result is a turquoise that deepens toward the middle of the day and cools off by evening. In front of a white or cream sofa it is at its best — that is the house's own recommendation, and it holds.

Afghanistan, by hand, loop by loop, at a density that takes months. The surface is wool with nothing else in it. The base is cotton except for a little recycled synthetic thread, put there to hold tension, which is a fact about the structure under the pile rather than about the part anyone stands on. Oushak is how English spells Uşak, a weaving town in western Anatolia, and what is drawn here is the Afghan reading of its vocabulary. Specialist washing only.

• Hand-knotted in Afghanistan; wool surface, nothing blended into it.
• Cotton base holding a little recycled synthetic thread for tensile strength.
• Classical Oushak flowers and branches in red, brick, mustard, navy and earth tones.
• A faded finish over the whole drawing, which is what modernizes it.
• 209 × 287 cm (6'10" × 9'5") — a large sitting room or a wide bedroom.
• Turquoise deepens by day and cools under lamps.
• Specialist washing only.

It was drawn to sit under pale upholstery, and it is one of the few strong colors that gets quieter the more furniture goes on top of it.