Cream Oushak Hand-Knotted Wool and Viscose Rug, Sultanahmet Series

This is among the most densely knotted rugs the house makes in its class, and the density is why the drawing holds together. Cream Oushak Hand-Knotted Wool and Viscose Rug, Sultanahmet Series, 172 × 241 cm (5'8" × 7'11"), tied by hand in India on a wool and cotton ground with viscose worked into the motifs. Oushak — Uşak in Turkish — is a weaving district in western Anatolia, and its patterns have been drawn there since the fifteenth century.

01The mark of slow weaving

Those motifs depend on curved lines that a knot can only approximate. At a lower density that same drawing goes blocky. Here the curves stay curved. Cream holds the field, brown and beige carry the detail, and the light decides how much of that detail you get — flat midday sun and the pattern is barely present, low evening light and it comes forward across the whole surface. The pile is wool and cotton with viscose in the motifs, which places shine exactly where the drawing is and nowhere else.

02Comes from from India

It was made in India over months of hand work. Wool is the fiber that will still be underfoot in twenty years; viscose is the fiber that makes it look expensive today, and it is the one that will show wear first in a doorway.

03What it sits well with

Solid and walnut furniture is its natural company. Regular vacuuming, and a professional wash when the color starts to look tired. Hand-knotted in India, among the densest weaves in this category. Wool and cotton ground, with viscose yarn in the motifs. Oushak drawing: curved, spaced, western Anatolian in origin. Cream field with brown and beige detail that strengthens in low light. Viscose carries the sheen and will show traffic before the wool does. 172 × 241 cm (5'8" × 7'11") — under a dining table, or in front of a seating group. Professional washing; day to day, a vacuum is enough. One piece. The pattern was already old when the workshops copying it were new, and it has survived by being easy to live with.