Indian Heriz | 368 x 282 cm | Nr. Z-4676

Indian Heriz

Availability	In stock | Delivery time: 1–3 working days
Origin	India
Dimensions	368 cm x 282 cm (= 10.38 m²)
Construction	hand-knotted
Material	Pile: wool (hand-spun, natural dyes) Weft: wool Warp: cotton
knots	60,000 knots
Pile height	8 mm
Colour	Light grey, blue-grey
Edition	one-of-a-kind piece

Origin

Heriz (also spelled Heris) is an important place of origin for hand-knotted rugs. Heriz lies in the far west of Iran, on the border with Azerbaijan. Rugs from Heriz are famous for their beautiful geometric designs. Characteristic of Heriz rugs is the lustrous wool with its wonderful colouring.

The pattern of this rug is inspired by the patterns of classic Indian Heriz rugs. This particular rug, however, was knotted in India.

Exactly when rug production in India began is unknown. The first rugs in India were probably made during the cultural flowering of the Mughal dynasty in the middle of the 16th century. In the middle of the 19th century, with the decline of the Mughal dynasty, Indian rug production fell into crisis. European companies whose only aim was export to the West took the place of the traditional court manufactories. Very similar rugs were produced in different towns, and standardisation set in. Today, the designs of hand-knotted Indian rugs can scarcely be attributed to individual regions. Instead, the workshops have come to specialise in rendering European and traditional Iranian designs adapted to Western taste. In terms of quality, rugs from India benefit from the long tradition of craftsmanship and the high quality of Indian materials.

Material

The technique used to produce the materials for the pile of this Indian Heriz is more than 200 years old. The wool was dyed with natural dyes and spun by hand. Dyeing with natural or plant dyes is more complicated, more expensive and more time-consuming than dyeing with chemical colours. For a luminous red, for example, you need roughly one kilo of ground madder root as dyestuff per kilo of wool. For a strong yellow that is not too pale, you even need two kilograms of weld per kilo of wool. Spinning the wool is just as time-consuming and labour-intensive. On top of that, fewer and fewer people still master the art of spinning wool by hand.

But the effort is worth it: dyeing with natural colours allows the high-quality wool to keep its natural oil content. Wool that has been dyed with natural colours and spun by hand creates fascinating, shimmering patterns. The charm of hand-spun wool, with its slight irregularities and natural shades, comes into its own as a contrast in modern interiors, but equally in rooms furnished in a more traditional or country style.

The weft threads of this Indian Heriz are made of wool. Cotton was used for the warp threads.