In a space that is sophisticated and minimal, eclectic and well traveled, neat and organized, and mindful of itself; a space that loves the pure essence of music and aims to capture the cleanest sound, sits the perfect braided carpet.
A unique rectangular piece that contains color, but is strengthened by black, dark browns, and neutrals brings together these elements to ground a listening room that is both soft and masculine at the same time. It’s texture, warm and full of memory, cultivates a sense of home.
Ries | Hayes Interior Design Studio really nailed it on this one.
Braided carpets are a category of rugs which are rich with history. This American cultural object of necessity has over time become an appreciated woven art form, and the search for unique and interesting period pieces is an ongoing one. Here’s some braided rugs that we find to be quite wonderful.
When you’re ready to find home, you know who to call.
Loving on this eclectic and down to earth space from our recent install in a NYC apartment.
The feel is clean, modern, and minimal with natural textures and reflective surfaces juxtaposing dark accents and plush fabrics.
There’s something about the way that Chinese Deco carpets pair with crushed velvet couches that has a sophisticated air about it. The soft warm tones and minimal dark accents of the rug make it a perfect fit for this room.
Love the look? Here’s some comparables for you to swoon over.
Let us know if you love one enough to try it at home!
As seen in Wallpaper Magazine, Kelly Behun was asked to design the first model residence at The Whiteley – housed in a historic former department store near Hyde Park, London – and reimagined by Foster + Partners Architects into a project comprised of 139 apartments as well as a Six Senses hotel & spa; all a short walk from Hyde Park.
Kelly used Chinese carpets in a few of the spaces – the perfect accompaniment to her punchy and eclectic style. Bold color and reflective surfaces juxtapose soft tones and subtle textures for a cohesive space which communicates harmony through contrast.
The moody sophistication of color rich spaces connect with the peacefully cultured opposition of the living areas - a yin and yang of energies for work and life. Richly subdued colors in the artwork, the accents, and the carpets bridge the two vibes.
Ready to get bold in your home? Here’s a whole pile of comparables for you to bring that Kelly Behun look to your floor.
Montpoupon is a fortified castle destroyed during the hundred years war, and rebuilt during the Renaissance by the Prie family. The chateau has been inhabited by the same family since 1857.
An open window illuminates the interior’s history and creates its own atmospheric lighting in this little bedroom.
The dark wood and navy carpet combined exude a moody vibe – which is amplified by the light of the single window.
The space features a NW Persian carpet with an all over boteh design, which is quite incredible to find a pair for – and it just so happens that we have exactly that in our inventory.
Navy combined with softer blues and neutrals make this traditional design a strong, yet easy going choice.
Here’s the goods to make you feel like the King of your own castle:
Check out some detail images to better view the nuances of this mid 19th century masterpiece. The subtle ahbrash of color within the rug is such a compelling feature.
All cotton foundation, with approx. 180 asymmetric (Persian) wool knots per square inch
Sampler mats were created for several different purposes: to store patterns; for the weavers to consult when making larger carpets; and for the ultimate client to approve the weave, color way and pattern before a larger carpet is woven.
Indian samplers are quite rare, and they usually function as both weaver guides and pattern reservoirs. This sampler, incorporating a snippet of the ogival red leaf lattice field, with a section of a yellow ochre border with cypresses, trees and upright flowering plants, has not been taken from a Mughal period pashmina pile, silk foundation, ultra-fine weave but from an illustration of one. A fragmentary piece is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Ex-Altman collection. These fragments are from a long and narrow carpet with a weave of about 1250 knots per square inch. They were first published with an illustration in Sarre and Trenkwald, Old Oriental Carpets, vol. II, 1926-1929. So, the sampler mat cannot be older than about 1930.
The pile is regular sheep wool rather than fine pashmina goat. The sampler was used in a factory to create a full-sized carpet. Given that it is incomplete in both field and border, there were probably additional samplers with other parts of the design. The colors are, however, modern close approximations of the original.
As to where and by whom the sampler was made. Lahore is the first possibility. This has always been a carpet trading and weaving center. Thus, the rug could have been ordered from any one of the local shops. The sampler was made in a very professional atelier which had access to an extensive design library, one having the Sarre and Trenckwald set. Oriental Carpet Manufacturers (O.C.M) was active in India beginning in the first quarter of the 20th century and had an excellent library and skilled designers. They had a specialized factory in Mirzapur weaving fine carpets, and this sampler could have used these. OCM did not market their carpets and it is difficult to assign any extant pieces to them, but since they were by far the largest carpet manufacturer, it is quite possible that this piece is one of theirs. Historicizing Mughal-style carpets, copied from illustrations in Sarre and Trenkwald , and from Hendley, Carpets in the Jaipur Palaces, 1905-6, were available in the Interwar Period, OCM possessed them in their extensive library, and we have seen other Mughal-style pieces of finer weave that successfully reproduce the originals. This sampler allows us to complete the fragmentary original.
Weft: cotton, off white, handspun, 2 shoots alternating
Pile: wool, 3 strand, handspun
Knot: asymmetric, open left, 48 knots per square inch
Sides: one cord, offwhite cotton wrapped
End: no original finish
This is a particularly large example of a Mandarin official’s carpet with a central medallion displaying nine lion dogs collectively symbolic of success on the national Chin Shih examination which provided guaranteed entry into the national administrative bureaucracy and the wealth devolving therefrom. The nine lion dogs are a rebus for success in the national bureaucracy. The apricot ground features 11 full or partial rows of tree peonies, flower and stem. This carpet is particularly large and clearly was made for a highly placed official or the wealthy family of a recent graduate of whom great things were expected. The principal was probably Buddhist as indicated by the embroidered ball and precious objects in the medallion. The clouds surrounding the lion dogs form a broken, polychrome circle rather than the usual continuous cloud wreath. This is one of the several features indicating a bespoke order rather than a piece made for the market.
Another indicator is the exceptional size, as the standard square Ningxia Mandarin carpet is about 12 to 14 feet square. The main border continues the color combination, with a now apricot ground and peonies among floral arabesques. The blue inner stripe is unusual with butterflies alternating with paired peaches of longevity. Surrounding the whole is a wide, dark blue plain band. The drawing is balanced in all directions, with nothing cut off or left incomplete.
The medallion has three peony rows below and four above, but it seems well centered. To have added another row at the bottom would have been technically more correct, but it would have made the carpet less than square, and squareness was an essential requirement. The notion that these square carpets were made for conforming dais platforms can be dismissed on an even cursory look at traditional Chinese houses. There are no daises. The only dais platforms are in the Forbidden City Imperial throne rooms and this is not an Imperial rug.
The condition is extraordinary. Such carpets were woven for the largest room of the house, the ancestor hall, and brought out only on important occasions like funerals, weddings, visits or holidays. Otherwise, they were rolled up and stored away. The handle is particularly thick and solid, and indicates a turn away from the softer and looser characteristic earlier Ningxia weave. Very few large Ningxia carpets are known and even fewer are in this exceptional state of perfect preservation.
The peony is a traditional Chinese carpet design, but it is usually combined with butterflies, bats, fretwork or other elements. The close and allover display of peonies is very unusual. The flower heads reverse direction at the approximate horizontal middle of the carpet. The carpet was originally more of a lacquer red as indicated by the verso. The logwood dye has, as is usual for Chinese carpets, changed to a mellow apricot.
As is standard, Ningxia carpets are not dated or inscribed, and it would be impossible to ascertain the original patron of the piece. In any case, his dwelling would have been most substantial with an ancestor hall twenty or more feet in width. The intended owner would have been highly placed in any case.
The exact workshop practices of the dozen or so workshops active at the time are not known, but the weavers, Hui Muslims, worked on vertical looms. Whether they employed partial cartoons for this exceptional piece is unknown, but it surely was well supervised. The central medallion probably had some sort of graphic guide, however.
Written by Dr Peter Saunders. To view this rug on our website, click here.
Here’s a fun space in London with one of our stunning and punchy antique Chinese Art Deco carpets.
We absolutely adore this space, but, just for fun… Let’s switch it up and try some other options from our inventory on for size and see how it alters the look.
Everyone’s taste, and interior style is different, and a completely different look can be achieved by simply swapping the rug that grounds your space. Which one of these alternatives is your favorite look?
Whether your look is casual, colorful, formal, or eclectic, we’ve got that something that will be the perfect accompaniment under foot. Check our inventory or let us get a search started for you today.
There are many symbols found in antique carpets which are representative of luck, fortune, abundance, and prosperity. Here we offer a short list, and a few examples of rugs utilizing these design elements.
Herati
Herati pattern
A pattern that derives its name from the city of Herat in Northwestern Afghanistan. It is an extremely common design found mainly on handmade carpets from Iran. It is comprised of a flower surrounded by acanthus-leaves. These leaves are sometimes called “flying fishes”, because of the similarity in shape.
The pattern is often used in designs with an all over repeated pattern, though lends itself nicely into lozenges or medallions of rugs with open fields or other simple ground layouts.
Dragon
Dragon
In Chinese culture dragons are symbols of great power, good luck, and strength which dates back to at least 3000BCE. They are significantly associated with prosperity, good harvest, health, and wealth.
Many Chinese New Year celebrations begin with the dragon dance as a symbolic request for prosperity in the coming cycle.
Stars & Crosses
cross
Star
Stars and crosses are protective motifs, found in rugs of varying origins, which connote happiness, offer protection agains evil, catastrophes, or ill will.
Birds
Ghashgaie birds
Whether it’s a phoenix, an eagle, a peacock or a dove, most birds symbolize good luck, power, happiness and love. There are some birds, however, such as ravens and owls, which mean bad luck and death.
Some rugs, such as the Persian Ghashgaie, contain flocks of small birds scattered throughout what would otherwise be the negative space in a carpets design.
Pomegranate
Pomegranate
The pomegranate with its many gem like seeds is used to portray luck in fertility and abundance, and is often displayed half open, with its seeds visible – an indication of its existence as a fruit of plenty.
The fascinating thing about the use of this fruit in woven art is that while it is is native to most Near Eastern and Mediterranean regions, it most often a feature in Central Asian rugs, such as Khotans.
Stay tuned for more descriptions and examples of further rug symbols!
Rudolf Stingel is an artist who focuses on exploring the relationship between art, space, and the viewer. He wants his installations to be interactive; to evoke emotion and depth of thought.
Palazzo Grassi is divided into 40 rooms and has 5,000 square meters of exhibition floor. The 2013 the show by Rudolf Stingel was a solo exhibition in which Stingel aimed to create an experience which draws upon the history of the city of Venice via a space which was built in the 16th century and passed through the hands of many noble families before being purchased in 2005 for use as a space to exhibit art.
His synthetic rendition of antique carpet is fabricated in larger than life scale, and covers every surface of every room in the building, playing with the various scales of his contemporary artworks, which stand out from the hues of the backdrop via their grey, white, and black palette in the same way that the openings of the building frame views of the city.
The exhibit touches on Sigmund Freud’s early 20th Century Viennese study with the exhibit of art suggesting presences that are ‘buried’ in memory, and removed experiences that thrive again. The carpet design itself replicates one of the carpets on the floor of Sigmund Freud’s study.
Weft:cotton,off-white,Z-4-S,winder plied, quite irregular;2 shots alternating; wefts thick and soft;
Pile:wool,Z-4;
Knot: PL/0 degrees warp depression/horiz. 6 x vertical 5 = 30 knots per square inch; knots somewhat irregular, some quite thin; [check for T knots along edges]
Sides: two cords each of two body warps, inner directly weft-attached; figure eight sparsely weft yarn wrapped;
Weft/knot ratio: 60/40 wefts predominant.
Remarks:
This is another variant on the popular Mandarin nine lion dog carpet. The polychrome cloud wreath has exuberant, almost Baroque volutes at the four cardinal points. The intermediary wreath sections were in field tones and have faded, making the composition rather hard to discern: the wreath would have been more salient before the changes to the long, curved, intermediate sections.
The dominant, dark blue lion dog appears at the top of the medallion and has a wide, particularly expressive face, complete with character creases and a canine snout. The dog has real personality and individuality, unlike most of the animals in similar carpets. The main dog is alert and lively, with curved and slightly droopy ears. All the dogs have light colored forepaws and small over pelts. The creatures are well spaced and not crowded in the medallion. The protected (protégé) dog is particularly small. The main dog seems to have no parallels among published carpets and were any to appear, an attribution to the same workshop should be considered.
#18830 NingXia 15’0″ x 15’3″ circa 1770
The corners of the field employ double peony arabesques forming simplified “heart” points at the right angles. The development here is much more schematic than l8830 and need not indicate the same workshop of origin. Sprays of tree peonies, butterflies, leafy twigs, fractional tendrils and grassy clusters are spotted throughout the now buff field.
The dark blue peony main border is notable for the rare diagonal corner palmettes from which emanate foliate sprays in both directions in order to make a perfectly symmetric turn. A bold T-fret inner border in salmon and dark blue has neat T’s in three corners and a single hook in one. This is a certain indicator, if one is still needed, that no scale paper cartoons were available to the weavers. Specifically, there was no formal illustration of how to make a fret border turn a corner.
#18355 NingXia 13’6″ x 13’10” circa 1750
As with our other examples, this nine dog main hall carpet was probably woven to the order of a successful Mandarin administrator. Each of our large lion dog carpets seem to originate in a different shop, although 20853 and l8355 may be more clearly related than the others. The extreme technical uniformity across the entire local industry deprives us of any unique idiosyncrasies and hence pattern is the sole evidence for differentiation. One must also keep in mind that the same shop evolved over time, producing different carpets for different clients, changing the design pool when useful and implying a rotating work staff.
Antique Rug Studio 