Tibetan rug | 189 x 120 cm | Nr. 20087

Tibetan rug

Delivery time	2 days
Origin	Tibet
Dimensions	189 cm x 120 cm (= 2.27 m²)
Construction	hand-knotted
Material	Pile: wool (hand-spun, natural dyes)
knots	80.000
Condition	pre-owned and cleaned
Edition	one-of-a-kind piece

Origin

The traditional patterns of Tibetan rugs resemble those of Chinese rugs. Today, though, most of the rugs knotted in Tibet are modern pieces in pastel shades made to Western specifications. In Lhasa in particular, the capital of Tibet, rugs are hand-knotted in large state-run workshops and exported to Beijing. The name Tibetan isn't always entirely accurate in geographical terms, however. Some Tibetan rugs are knotted by refugees from Tibet living in Nepal.

What gives Tibetan rugs their character is the highland wool they are knotted from. Tibetan highland wool comes from the Himalayas and is produced by Tibetan nomads. The sheep that live in the Himalayas have to brave the weather conditions there and are extremely hardy. Their wool is very rich in lanolin and slightly crimped. Synthetic dyes are often used to colour the wool, which gives a more even result and therefore fewer colour shifts (known as abrash). Because the wool is extremely robust but not especially lustrous, it is quite often blended with New Zealand wool, viscose or silk.

Material

The technique used to make the materials for the pile of this Tibetan rug is more than 200 years old. The wool was dyed with natural colours and spun by hand. Dyeing with natural or plant colours is more complicated, more expensive and more time-consuming than dyeing with chemical dyes. For a luminous red, for instance, you need around one kilo of ground madder root as the dyestuff for every kilo of wool. For a strong yellow that isn't too pale, it takes as much as two kilograms of weld per kilo of wool. Spinning the wool is time-consuming and labour-intensive too. On top of that, fewer and fewer people still master 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 and warp threads of this Tibetan rug are made of cotton. This versatile material is tear-resistant and supple, which makes it particularly well suited to a hard-wearing foundation.

Condition

You are not the first to take a liking to this Tibetan rug. It has had owners before you who valued and used it. It was knotted around 66. It has been thoroughly cleaned and is in good but unrestored condition. The pile of this rug has grown a little thinner in places. We have not restored this Tibetan rug, because we feel it has a special presence just as it is. If that is what you would like, we will of course be happy to restore the rug for you. Either way, this Tibetan rug will give you pleasure for decades to come.