Cream Medallion Hand-Knotted Silk and Wool Rug, Nahar Series

Ninety percent silk, ten percent wool: that ratio is what the Nahar Series is. Cream Medallion Hand-Knotted Silk and Wool Rug, 126 × 182 cm (4'2" × 6'0"), tied by hand in China, with a circular motif at the center opening like the layers of a flower and leaf-and-vine work running out from it. The ten percent matters more than it sounds. Pure silk is beautiful and slack; wool at that proportion gives the fabric enough spine to lie flat and take weight without the pile crushing, while the silk keeps the shine and the fineness.

01The tone of the ground

Cream is the ground, and it is a warm cream rather than a white one, so the rug lights a room without cooling it. The central medallion is the whole composition — everything else is subordinate to it, a spiral of leaves and vines from the classical Anatolian and Central Asian repertoire, spreading outward until the border stops it. Hundreds of thousands of knots, tied by hand, over months.

02The mark of slow weaving

Silk rugs at this ratio are a shrinking category and the workshops producing them are fewer every year; the house is candid that this is one of the last examples of a craft nobody is replacing.

03How many centimeters, which room

At 126 × 182 cm it is a reception-room size rather than a living-room one — a small formal room, a study, the space in front of a fireplace. Professional cleaning only, and not often. Hand-knotted in China from 90% silk and 10% wool. The wool content is what keeps a silk pile from crushing under weight. A circular central medallion opening in layers, with leaf and vine work around it. Classical Anatolian and Central Asian motifs. Hundreds of thousands of knots; months of work. 126 × 182 cm (4'2" × 6'0") — a study, a small formal room, a hearth. Produced in very small numbers. Professional cleaning only.

One piece. The kind of rug that outlasts several rooms and gets moved into each of them.