Mamlouk | 250 x 176 cm | Nr. Z-2778

Geometric Mamlouk, dark grey with border and medallion

Origin	India
Dimensions	250 cm x 176 cm (= 4.4 m²)
Construction	hand-knotted
Material	Pile: wool (hand-spun, natural dyes) Weft: wool Warp: cotton
knots per m²2	60.000
Pile height	6mm
Year of manufacture	2023
Colour	Dark grey, black
Edition	one-of-a-kind piece

Origin

Mamlouk rugs (less commonly spelled Mamluk) were knotted in Egypt above all in the 15th century and are found almost exclusively in museums today. This Mamlouk rug is a reinterpretation of the classic pattern, which is characterised by a wealth of different geometric shapes that lend the rug a kaleidoscopic effect. The way this piece is made gives the rug a modern vintage look.

Pattern

The abstract, geometric composition is what gives this Mamlouk its understated elegance. The pattern flatters the design of the room and never draws attention away from the furniture, the decorative pieces and the architectural details. It fits beautifully into any setting and complements a room's furnishings in a subtle way.

The edge of the rug is framed by a decorative border. The border forms a beautiful contrast with the centre.

At the heart of the central field of this Mamlouk lies the symmetrical centre, also known as the medallion. The design of the field is subordinate to the medallion, so that the medallion appears to float upon the field.

The surface of this Mamlouk 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 when it comes to dirt. These colour shifts, known as abrash, give the rug a livelier appearance. The mottling comes about because the wool of this Mamlouk was hand-spun. During dyeing, the natural pigments are absorbed to differing degrees.

The background of this Mamlouk is dark grey. The border is worked in dark grey, black and blue-grey. In the dark grey centre, black and blue-grey are combined.

Material

The technique used to prepare the materials for the pile of this Mamlouk 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 dyes. For a luminous red, for example, you need around one kilo of ground madder root as dyestuff for every kilo of wool. For a strong yellow that isn't too pale, it even takes two kilos of weld per kilo of wool. Spinning the wool is just as slow and labour-intensive. And fewer and fewer people still know how to spin wool by hand.

But the effort is worth it: dyeing with natural colours lets the high-quality wool keep its natural lanolin content. Naturally dyed, hand-spun wool produces fascinating patterns that shimmer and shift. The charm of hand-spun wool, with its slight irregularities and natural shades, comes into its own as a contrast in modern interiors, but just as well in rooms furnished in a more traditional or country-house style. The weft threads of this Mamlouk are made of wool. Cotton was used for the warp threads.