Red Bordered Oushak Handwoven Wool Rug, Şahzade Series

Wool on the surface, cotton and synthetic underneath it, and the house prints all three rather than calling the rug pure wool — which is the first thing worth knowing about this red bordered Oushak from the Şahzade series, handwoven in Afghanistan at 175 × 242 cm (5'9" × 7'11").

01Up close to the pattern

Two near-identical pieces were listed here and one is left. The border is the part doing the work in a bordered Oushak. A wide outer band, an inner guard band repeating the same figure at a smaller scale, and the field held inside both — the frame is what gives a rug this proportion its weight, and it is the first thing that goes when a design is cheapened.

02At the loom in in Afghanistan

Red on red is the difficult version of it: field and border share a family of tones and the separation between them rests on the drawing instead of on contrast, so the pattern has to be well set out or it reads as a blur. Woven by hand in Afghanistan in the Anatolian classical manner. Two rugs woven to the same drawing are never quite twins — this one measured 175 × 242 cm and its companion 178 × 241, which is a normal spread for hand work and is why a hand-woven piece is measured after weaving rather than before.

Allow for the same tolerance against your own wall. When the surface needs more than a vacuum, a rug washer takes it from there. Handwoven in Afghanistan; wool surface, with cotton and synthetic declared. A bordered Oushak — wide outer band, inner guard band, field held inside both. 175 × 242 cm (5'9" × 7'11"), 4.2 square meters. Its companion piece measured 178 × 241 cm; hand weaving does not repeat exactly. Field and border share a tonal family, so the drawing does the separating. Professional washing. One piece remaining. The tolerance that makes two of these different sizes is the same tolerance that makes either of them worth more than a printed one.