Beni Berber | 447 x 377 cm | Nr. Z-1353

Modern Beni Berber, cream white

Origin	Pakistan
Dimensions	447 cm x 377 cm (= 16.85 m²)
Construction	hand-knotted
Material	Pile: wool (hand-spun, natural dyes) Weft & Warp: wool
knots per m²2	120.000
Pile height	5mm
Year of manufacture	2022
Colour	Cream white
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. Modern designers such as Alvar Aalto, Le Corbusier, Charles and Ray Eames, Frank Lloyd Wright, Marcel Breuer and Arne Jacobsen valued the naive, clear design of these high-pile Moroccan nomad rugs. That powerful, artistic expression has an extraordinary presence and makes Berber rugs – quite apart from their fluffy feel – one of a kind.

 

Pattern

The clear, abstract design of this contemporary rug speaks especially to people who love simple, modern interiors and architecture. The design idea for this rug comes from Europe. Free from the rules of traditional rug patterns, it was developed for Western art and interior styles. That is not an entirely new development, though. The roots of European rug design go back to Art Deco rugs, which were made to Western specifications between the late twenties and the fifties.

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 colour of this Beni Berber is cream white.

 

Material

This hand-knotted Berber rug has a dense, fairly high pile. That makes it wonderfully 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 also work beautifully in walkways and dining areas. The warp and weft yarns of this Berber rug are made of cotton; 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 made of new wool.