Black Abstract Modern Cowhide Rug

Black Abstract Modern Cowhide Rug — real hide, not a print and not a weave, prepared in South America and finished with an abstract modern drawing, 197 × 224 cm (6'6" × 7'4"). Hide has no pile, no knots and no warp: the surface is hair lying flat on skin, and it is dry cleaned rather than washed.

Hair on a hide all lies one way, and that is the whole optical behavior of a cowhide floor. Walk toward the lie and the black is dense and matt; walk against it and the same black goes silver where the light catches the shafts. Nothing about that changes with cleaning or with the seasons. It is also why a hide looks like two different objects from the two ends of a room, which no woven rug quite manages.

Cowhide, prepared in South America. At 197 × 224 cm it is close to square and large for a hide, which makes it a piece to put under a low table rather than beside a bed. Two things hold for every hide on a floor and are better said in advance than found out later: it is dry cleaned and never wet-washed, and it cannot be replaced like for like, because no second hide carries the same markings. There is no fringe to fray and no pile to crush, so the ordinary rug worries do not apply.

• Real cowhide, prepared in South America.
• Black, with an abstract drawing rather than a woven pattern.
• 197 × 224 cm (6'6" × 7'4") — close to square, and large for a hide.
• The hair lies one way, so the color shifts from matt to silver depending on where you stand.
• Dry clean only; hide and water are a poor combination.
• No pile to flatten and no fringe to wear.
• A single hide product; the markings on it are not repeated.

Can a cowhide rug be washed?

No. Water stiffens and shrinks skin as it dries, so a hide is cleaned dry — brushed along the lie of the hair for upkeep, and taken to a dry cleaner for anything more. Spills are blotted rather than soaked up, and the hide is rolled for storage, never folded.

Why are no two cowhide rugs the same?

Each one comes from a single animal, and markings, grain and hair direction differ from hide to hide. That is why a hide rug cannot be ordered again to match, and why a damaged one cannot be replaced with an identical piece.

On pale concrete or oak it does what a black-and-white photograph does on a white wall.