Oxiana | 150 x 100 cm | Nr. Z-3815

Mottled Oxiana, light grey with paradise garden pattern

Origin	Pakistan
Dimensions	150 cm x 100 cm (= 1.5 m²)
Construction	hand-knotted
Material	Pile: wool (hand-spun, natural dyes) Weft & Warp: cotton
knots per m²2	200.000
Pile height	5mm
Year of manufacture	2025
Colour	Light grey, terracotta
Edition	one-of-a-kind piece

Origin

The pattern of this hand-knotted Oxiana rug takes its cue from traditional Uzbek designs. Rugs with a similar pattern were originally knotted above all in the region around Samarkand and Oxiana. Our Oxiana rugs are tuned to contemporary taste: harmonious colour compositions in natural dyes flatter the traditional pattern. Colourful horizontal stripes run across the Oxiana rugs, alternating with imaginatively patterned sections. The patterned parts show geometric compositions that recall a Kazak pattern. Another characteristic feature is that the fringes are gathered into small bundles and wrapped with threads in different colours.

Pattern

This Oxiana is graced by a wonderful paradise garden motif. The paradise garden motif is typical of the Safavid era. Paradise garden rugs carry a stylised, geometric depiction of a traditional Persian garden with delicate plants and trees. The Greek word "paradeisos" goes back to the Middle Persian word "pardēs". Originally the term referred to the Persian royal gardens, and only in a biblical context did it take on the connotation of the garden of God. These fertile, artfully laid-out royal gardens were home to a wide variety of exotic plants and animals. They were enclosed by a wall, a symbol of the separation between heaven and earth. Traditional Persian paradise gardens were rectangular, with a stream or other body of water running from north to south and from east to west, forming a cross that divides the garden into four sections. In rugs depicting paradise gardens, too, the rendering of water – so precious in arid regions – plays a prominent role.

The background of this Oxiana is light grey.

Material

The technique used to make the materials for this Oxiana's pile is over 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 around one kilo of ground madder root as dyestuff per 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 time-consuming and labour-intensive. On top of that, fewer and fewer people still master spinning wool by hand.

But the effort is worth it: dyeing with natural colours lets the high-quality wool keep its natural oils. 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 just as much in rooms furnished in a more traditional or country-house style. The weft and warp threads of this Oxiana are made of cotton. This versatile material is tear-resistant and pliable, which makes it especially well suited to a hard-wearing foundation.