Beni Berber | 316 x 254 cm | Nr. 20666

Geometric Beni Berber, beige with stripes

Origin	Pakistan
Dimensions	316 cm x 254 cm (= 8.03 m²)
Construction	hand-knotted
Material	Pile: wool (hand-spun, natural dyes) Weft & Warp: cotton
knots per m²2	40.000
Pile height	8mm
Condition	new
Colour	Beige, black
Edition	one-of-a-kind piece

 

Origin

Berber rugs were traditionally knotted for use in the home. The weavers, mostly 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. Designers such as Alvar Aalto, Le Corbusier, Charles and Ray Eames, Frank Lloyd Wright, Marcel Breuer and Arne Jacobsen prized the naive, clear design of these high-pile Moroccan nomad rugs. Their powerful artistic expression has an extraordinary presence and makes Berber rugs quite unlike anything else – even leaving aside how wonderfully soft they feel.

 

Pattern

The abstract, geometric composition is what gives this Beni Berber its understated elegance. The pattern flatters the design of the room and never draws attention away from the furniture, the decor and the architectural elements. It settles beautifully into any setting and complements the furnishings of a room in a subtle way.

The straight stripes of this Beni Berber order and structure the pattern.

A lightly suggested border frames the edge of this rug.

The surface of this Beni Berber has a mottled look. The shifts in tone and the light-and-dark shading of the pile yarn make the colours shimmer and keep the rug forgiving of dirt. These so-called colour jumps, known as abrash, give the rug a livelier feel. The mottling comes about because the wool of this Beni Berber was hand-spun. During dyeing, the natural dyes are taken up unevenly.

The background of this Beni Berber is beige. The border is worked in beige and black.

 

Material

This hand-knotted Berber rug has a dense, fairly high pile. That makes it very cosy and hard-wearing. Traditionally, Berber rugs – like Lori or Gabbeh rugs – were used for sleeping on. They invite you to sit and sprawl in the living room, but they are also excellent for hallways and dining areas. The warp and weft yarns of this Berber rug are cotton; the pile is wool that is dyed with natural dyes and hand-spun. The hand-spun wool is what gives the Loris their soft surface. The weft and warp threads of this Beni Berber are cotton. This versatile material is tear-resistant and elastic and therefore particularly well suited to a hard-wearing foundation.