Beni Berber | 301 x 255 cm | Nr. Z-3934

Plain Beni Berber, cream white with diamonds

Origin	India
Dimensions	301 cm x 255 cm (= 7.67 m²)
Construction	hand-knotted
Material	Pile: wool Weft & Warp: wool
knots per m²2	60.000
Pile height	8mm
Year of manufacture	2025
Colour	Cream white
Edition	one-of-a-kind piece

Origin

Berber rugs were traditionally knotted for use in the home. The weavers, predominantly women, played freely and spontaneously with shapes and colours – without any pattern templates – following their own ideas and their individual intuition. That is why the traditional pattern of Moroccan Berber rugs typically consists of geometric, sometimes colourful, abstract shapes and lines on monochrome backgrounds. Our Beni Berber rugs are inspired by these traditional patterns.

Architects and designers such as Alvar Aalto, Le Corbusier, Charles and Ray Eames, Frank Lloyd Wright, Marcel Breuer and Arne Jacobsen loved the naive, clear design of these high-pile Moroccan nomad rugs. Their powerful artistic expression gives them an extraordinary presence and makes Berber rugs quite incomparable – even setting aside how soft they feel underfoot.

Pattern

The pile is a single colour throughout, in cream white. The plain design is understated, yet it can also set a wonderful decorative accent. The monochrome look of this rug fits beautifully into any setting.

In the pattern of this Beni Berber it is above all the diamonds that stand out. A diamond is a rhombus standing on one of its points, and in an Oriental rug its four equal sides can be jagged, stepped or set with hooks. The diamond is one of the oldest basic shapes in the Oriental rug. In the Islamic world it carries a symbolic meaning: it stands for the immortality of the soul. That is why it is found so often as a filler motif.

Individual areas of the pattern have a higher pile than the rest of this rug. The patterns of modern rugs are tending to become plainer and more abstract. Playing with different pile heights is a new approach, and it has replaced more elaborate, more insistent patterns. Because parts of the pattern have been brought out in two dimensions, though, the rug never looks dull. The accentuation is out of the ordinary and has a truly distinctive effect.

Material

This hand-knotted Berber rug has a dense, relatively high pile. That makes it both cosy and hard-wearing. Traditionally, Berber rugs – like Lori or Gabbeh rugs – were used for sleeping on. They invite you to sit and lounge about in the living room, yet they are equally at home in hallways and dining areas. The warp and weft yarns of this Berber rug are cotton, while the pile is made of wool that is dyed with natural colours and hand-spun. The hand-spun wool is what gives the Loris their soft surface. The foundation (weft and warp threads) of this Beni Berber is new wool.