Oxiana | 346 x 252 cm | Nr. Z-4667

Mottled Oxiana, light red with all-over pattern (finely drawn) and border

Origin	Afghanistan
Dimensions	346 cm x 252 cm (= 8.7192 m²)
Construction	hand-knotted
Material	Pile: wool (hand-spun, natural dyes) Weft & Warp: wool
knots per m²2	230.000
Pile height	6mm
Year of manufacture	2026
Colour	Light red, dark blue
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

The surface of this Oxiana 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 appearance. The mottling occurs because the wool of this Oxiana was hand-spun. During dyeing, the natural dyes are absorbed to differing degrees.

This Oxiana has an enormous amount of character. The labyrinth-like background is hypnotic and incredibly detailed. The repeating elements in the central field of this Oxiana rug have no specific centre (a so-called repeat pattern). The recurring pattern feels calming, yet never dull. Rugs with a repeat pattern are also described as all-over patterned.

The ornate border forms a wonderful contrast with the centre and shapes the transition at the edge of the rug.

The background of this Oxiana is light red. The border is worked in light red, dark blue and a mix of bright colours.

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: because it is dyed with natural colours, the high-quality wool keeps its natural lanolin content. Wool dyed with natural colours and spun by hand creates fascinating, shifting 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-house style. The foundation (weft and warp threads) of this Oxiana is made of new wool.