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.
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.
The studio-office at L’Ermitage de Pompadour is the Fontainebleau home of collector Charles de Noailles, French author and patron of the arts.
The office was decorated by Georges Geffroy (1903/05–1971), who is aptly described by Mitch Owens as “the most glamorous interior designer you’ve never heard of.”
Owens writes in an article in Arch Digest, “In his youth, the Paris-born Geffroy had worked in fashion, turning out hats for Paul Poiret and Redfern and designing clothes at Jean Patou. By the 1930s, though, he had begun decorating, turning out everything from suave fashion-house salons for Jean Piguet and Marcel Rochas to striking theater sets, such as a celebrated production of Sheridan’s School for Scandal, to glamorous, history-inflected rooms for celebrated socialites.”
The pictured studio gives us historical reference for the design and its uses as we present to you a matching mid 19th Century Aubusson carpet from our inventory.
Stock ID 19734 French Aubusson 10’0″ x 16’0″ circa 1840
The extremely fine woven mid-19th century French Aubusson rug was designed by Sallandrouze, who were amongst the wealthiest and most illustrious families in the carpet, rug and tapestry industry in Aubusson.
The piece is rich with silk and gilt-metal thread. An irregular lattice delineates lozenge shaped spaces and is centered on a particularly large and elaborate sub sectioned ivory motif. Each tall panel is filled with arabesques organized in a cruciform pattern. The narrow, off-white check-mark border discreetly frames the whole.
It’s no secret that we love working with the spectacular Ryan Lawson, and we’re especially thrilled to see his inspired visions in an exhibition called CELEBRATING MASTERWORKS, in which Ryan uses some of our vintage and antique carpets to help build narratives around the furniture.
With Ryan’s eclectic touch, he pulls from the incredible collections of Dobrinka Salzman and Diner Gallery to curate the best of the best works by a number of artists.
Here an early 20th Century Donegal Arts & Crafts Carpet Designed by Gavin Morton brings an intense warmth that offsets the wall color perfectly.
The “Turkey red” Oushak based design eschews borders, and the whole effect is that of a centered, but not overtly medallion, layout. The color palette is narrow, including red, cream and black. One could see it as a Turkish village yastik (cushion cover) blown up to vast room-size. The weave is quite coarse and the carpets were intended for a middle class clientele, going with wallpaper, furnishings and accessories. They were marketed primarily through Liberty of London. The carpets in this design, as most of Donegals were, came in various colorways, and there are examples with cream and dark blue grounds.
Unlike Oushaks which were produced in quantity, Donegal carpets were woven in smaller numbers and have always been relatively uncommon.
Stock ID 24303 Irish Donegal 11’4” x 16’8” circa 1900
In this ensemble a 1950s Swedish Rya grounds the space with its modern rendition of pictorial tradition that is more than two centuries old.
The relatively shaggy pile is arranged in an oval ecru lattice creating pumpkin yellow – orange reserves, forming a background for stick figures of peasants wielding pitchforks, baskets, staves and slings for seeding. Some could be construed as ancient military figures with shields.
The pictorial tradition in Scandinavian Rya and Rollakan pile and flat-weave, rugs and carpets is more than two centuries old, and in fact probably had an origin back in Mediaeval times.
The open light rose field of this 1930s Austrian Art Nouveau Vienna Werkstätte carpet is bounded by a narrow stripe of alternating squares and rectangles. The general effect is minimal yet colorful. The carpet does not have a design in competition with the art and other furnishings, but it easily holds its own in any context.
Stock ID 19280 Austrian Art Deco 9’4” x 13’6” circa 1930
This space features a mid 20th century Ecuadorian carpet designed by Olga Fisch which is an abstracted and minimalist design in neutral tones – inspired by the Nazca Lines of Peru.
The “Nazca Lines” are ancient Peruvian, but they have inspired the drawing on this Moderne New World carpet. The vast majority of Ecuadorian carpets display active, schematic human figures and animals, generally in dark tones contrasting with cream, borderless grounds. This is the only known carpet by this designer executed in a totally abstract, minimalist manner.
Stock ID 24599 Ecuadorian 12’4” x 17’3” circa 1960
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.
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.
After viewing the half-neon half-carpet works of Ramazan Can, Rahul Kumar remarks, “I was drawn to the works of Can at the gallery Anna Laudel’s presentation at Art Dubai 2022. A tapestry that I was later told is an original, used piece that belonged to the family of Can, was juxtaposed with neon lights, outlining some of the patterns of the carpet itself. The work was dichotomous – old and new, quiet and bold, handmade and industrial – all at once.”
He later interviewed the artist to discuss his work and personal history even further. As stated by Can, in an attempt to deal with the temporal flow of the act of extinction (past-present) and from the opposite (present-past) such half-carpet half-neon works emerged.
My personal favorite of this series is “Always Waited for Tomorrow”. There’s something about the juxtaposition of old and new is incredibly compelling as is, but adding the ‘loading’ bar connects it even more to the idea of temporal flow between past and present.
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.
Main Colors: camel, brown, charcoal, coral red, light aqua, light blue, and ivory.
The almost black field of this very fine antique Kerman displays an imaginative, elaborate version of the classic Persian Harshang “crab” pattern of complex pelmets, diamonds, step quadrangles, and a wide variety of stylized flowers and angular vines.
This is framed by an independent ivory cartouche with pelmets and vines, and frequent projections toward the main border. It is not till later broken border, but it points in that direction.
The true main border, also ivory, has a palmett and spray pattern reminiscent of the 17th century vase carpets of Kerman. Rose with blue, and black guard borders containing stylized central patterns paint the whole.
As with almost all Kerman carpets of this period, the design is unique and was likely commissioned from a local artist specializing in one of a kind carpet patterns. There are no other examples of any size or color way in this pattern.
The use of elaborate overall pattern on Lavar style Kermans is especially developed in this period, and this carpet is a particularly fine example with a wide color palette and rich ground color.
The Abrash is subtle and just enough to give a color depth and eye-catching variation.
The weave is extremely fine and is generally seen only on smaller pictorial and other scatter size Kerman’s.
Antique Rug Studio 