Old Koliai | 201 x 131 cm | Nr. Z-2902

Floral old Koliai, dusky pink with border

Origin	Persia
Dimensions	201 cm x 131 cm (= 2.6331 m²)
Construction	hand-knotted
Material	Pile: wool (hand-spun, natural dyes) Weft & Warp: cotton
knots per m²2	90.000
Pile height	7mm
Year of manufacture	1930
Colour	Dusky pink, dark blue
Edition	one-of-a-kind piece

 

Origin

Koliai (also Koliajy, Koliahi, Koliay) rugs are rustic, hand-knotted rugs made by the Kurds of western Persia. Koliai have a relatively deep pile and a solid, voluminous weave using the Turkish knot, and some are knotted on a woollen foundation (weft and warp threads of wool).

When knotting rugs, the Kurds draw on all the classic provenances (origin, heritage). They don't copy the traditional patterns slavishly, though, but reinterpret them in their own way. The colouring in particular often differs markedly from the original designs. Among Koliai rugs you'll therefore find the most varied designs, but usually in a rather dark palette. This old Koliai is around 90 years old and a real collector's piece.

 

Pattern

The decorated surround (border) forms a beautiful contrast to the centre and shapes the transition at the edge of the rug.

The lush floral motifs of this Koliai are elegant and wonderfully varied. The graceful plant symbols, depicting blossoms, leaves and branches, are artfully intertwined.

The background of this Koliai is dusky pink. The border is worked in dark blue and golden beige.

 

Condition

You're not the first to take a liking to this Koliai. It had owners before you who valued and used it. It was hand-knotted around 1930. It has been thoroughly cleaned and is in good, though only partly restored, condition. We haven't fully restored this Koliai because we feel it has a special charm just as it is. If that's what you'd like, we're of course happy to carry on restoring the rug for you. We can bring almost any rug back to near-perfect condition.

 

Material

The technique used to make the materials for this Koliai's pile is more than 200 years old. The wool was dyed with natural colours and spun by hand. Dyeing with natural or plant-based colours is more complicated, more expensive and more time-consuming than dyeing with chemical colours. For a luminous red, for example, you need around one kilo of ground madder root as dye per kilo of wool. For a strong yellow that isn't too pale, it even takes two kilograms of weld dye per kilo of wool. Spinning the wool is labour-intensive and time-consuming too. And fewer and fewer people still master spinning wool by hand.

But the effort is worth it: dyeing with natural colours lets the high-grade wool keep its natural lanolin content. Wool that has been naturally dyed and hand-spun creates fascinating, shimmering patterns. The charm of hand-spun wool, with its slight irregularities and natural shades, unfolds as a contrast in modern interiors, but equally in rooms furnished more traditionally or in country style. The weft and warp threads of this Koliai are cotton. This versatile material is tear-resistant and elastic, which makes it especially well suited to a hard-wearing foundation.