Red Oushak-Pattern Handwoven Wool Rug, Şahzade Series

Pure wool on the surface, cotton underneath with a little recycled synthetic yarn worked in for strength: Şahzade Series Handwoven Oushak-Pattern Red Wool Rug, 171 × 249 cm (5'7" × 8'2"), woven in Afghanistan.

01Color, by the light

Thin stems, flowerheads and symmetrical figures in gold, green and blue, all of it across a deep red ground. Red is the ground Oushak drawing was made for, and at this saturation it carries gold particularly well.

02The origin of the pattern

The motifs are set out symmetrically, stem answering stem across the field, in the way this pattern family has been drawn in western Anatolia for centuries. Because every knot was tied by a person, no two of these rugs come out alike — small differences in spacing and in color are what separate one from the next. Woven by hand in Afghanistan, where the pattern traveled long ago and stayed.

03From ground to pile

The wool is what your foot touches; the cotton and the trace of recycled synthetic in the foundation are there to keep the rug in shape across decades, and the house names them rather than glossing over them.

04A question of size

At 171 × 249 cm it sits under a mid-sized seating group, a dining table or the foot of a bed without crowding any of them. Vacuum and wipe as needed; a professional wash extends it. Handwoven in Afghanistan. Pure wool pile; cotton foundation with a little recycled synthetic spun into it. 171 × 249 cm (5'7" × 8'2"). Oushak drawing — fine stems, flowerheads, symmetrical placement. Gold, green and blue motifs on a deep red ground. Each rug differs slightly from the next, because each was tied by hand. A vacuum and a wipe most days; a professional wash now and then. A red rug is a decision rather than a default, and this one was drawn by people who had made that decision several hundred years earlier.