Rugs and runners

Every rug, written down before it is sold.

A rug in this room is not a story. It is a set of measurements, a knot count, a pile height, a list of fibres and an honest account of wear, followed by photographs in daylight. That is the whole listing, and it is enough to buy from.

What follows is how each line of the note is arrived at, so that when you read one you know exactly what was measured, how, and what was left out on purpose.

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The corner of a flatweave: fringe, a stepped guard stripe, the main border and the edge of the field — Fringe, guard stripe, main border, field. The four words that come up in every note, seen at one corner.

The five lines of the note

A close view of the pile: two deer face to face, every knot visible as a small tuft of wool — The pile seen close. Each small tuft is one knot; the count is taken on the back, where the knots show as a grid.

The note under every rug and runner has five lines. They are always in the same order, so two listings can be read against each other.

Size, to the centimetreA hand-knotted rug is rarely a true rectangle. We measure the length along both selvedges and the width across both ends, and write the longest and the widest first, then the shortest and the narrowest. Fringe is never counted in the length; the note gives it separately, as the length of the fringe at each end.
Knot count, per square decimetreCounted on the back of the rug, where every knot shows as a small square. We count the knots across ten centimetres of weft and the knots down ten centimetres of warp, in the middle of the field, and multiply. Because the trade also quotes knots per square inch, the note gives that too; the reckoner further down does the same sum for you.
Pile height, in millimetresMeasured from the foundation to the tip of the pile, at the highest point of the field and again at the lowest worn point, so the note shows the range the rug actually has, not the height it was woven at.
FibreWhat the pile and the foundation are made of, as far as hand and eye can tell: wool pile on a cotton warp, wool on wool, or wool with silk highlights. Where we are not sure, the note says so rather than picking the better-sounding answer.
WearEverything we can find: pile worn low in the walking line, a corner that curls, a selvedge that has been rebound at some point, fringe that has been shortened, moth damage, a brittle patch of foundation, colour that has bled from one motif into its neighbour, and the abrash, the bands where the shade shifts because a dye lot ran out. Repairs already done by someone else are listed as repairs; none were done here.

Field, border, selvedge, fringe

The words in a note are the trade's own, and it helps to know four of them before you read one.

FieldThe large central area inside the borders. It may carry a medallion at its centre, a repeating pattern, or a plain ground with a single motif. The knot count is taken here.
BorderThe bands that frame the field. The wide one is the main border; the narrow stripes either side of it are guard stripes. A rug can have several. The note says how many, and whether any border has been cut, which happens when a rug was once shortened.
SelvedgeThe finished long edges, where the weft turns and is wrapped. It takes the first wear from feet and chair legs, and it is the part most often rebound. Plain cotton binding tape is sold here for exactly that; the sewing is not done here.
FringeThe warp threads left free at each end. Fringe is not part of the rug's size, it wears faster than anything else, and it is the part a vacuum cleaner most likes to eat. The sizes page has more on that.

Runners

A runner is a long, narrow piece, and its note carries two extra lines because a corridor forgives less than a room does.

The first is straightness. We lay the runner on a flat floor, pull a line along one selvedge and write down how far the other end drifts from it. A runner that bows will show a wedge of floor down one side of a hallway, and you should know that before it arrives, not after.

The second is width at three points, because a runner narrows and widens along its length more often than a room-sized rug does. The note gives the width at each end and in the middle. If the piece is to sit between two walls with a fixed band of floor showing, the widest figure is the one to work from.

Runners in wool with a low pile are the ones that live longest in a hallway. Where a listed runner has a higher pile, the note says so, and where its wear already shows a walking line, that is in the wear line too.

A long two-panel flatweave: hexagons on a cream field inside a red border of hooks — A long flatweave in two panels. A runner is measured for straightness along one edge and for width at three points, because a corridor shows every drift.

Wool with silk highlights

Some pieces in the room carry silk as well as wool. It is used sparingly: for the outline of a medallion, for the small flowers inside a border, or for a single motif that the weaver wanted to catch the light. Silk takes dye more brightly than wool, and it reflects, so a silk highlight reads as a slightly different colour from every angle you look at it.

The note handles silk in two ways. It says where the silk sits, using the words above: in the field, in the main border, in the guard stripes, in the outlines. And it says, in words rather than a percentage, how much of the pile it makes up: a few motifs, the outlines only, or scattered through the field. We do not weigh it and we do not put a number on it, because the number would be a guess dressed as a measurement.

Silk highlights also wear differently. Silk pile is finer and lower than the wool around it, so on an older piece the silk motifs can sit visibly below the wool. When that has happened it is written in the wear line, with the pile height given at a silk motif as well as in the wool.

The knot reckoner

Count the knots across ten centimetres of the back of the rug, along the weft. Then count them down ten centimetres, along the warp. Type both numbers and the reckoner gives the density three ways: per square decimetre, which is what the note uses; per square inch, which the trade also quotes; and per square metre. One square decimetre is fifteen and a half square inches, so the second figure is the first divided by that, rounded.

Per square decimetre: —

Per square inch: —

Per square metre: —

The count in a note is always taken in the middle of the field. A count taken in the border or near the ends will usually be higher or lower, and it is not the figure two rugs should be compared on.

What is never claimed

Three things are left out of every note on purpose, and a listing that carried any of them would be a listing you should not trust.

Age. No date, no period, no word such as old, vintage or antique. Age cannot be proved from a rug alone, and a guess presented as a fact is the commonest way a rug is oversold.
Region of origin as fact. A design belongs to a tradition, and the note may name the tradition a pattern follows, but a tradition is not a place of making. The note will never say where a piece was woven, because we were not there.
Value as an investment. A rug in this room is a floor covering that is priced to be walked on. It is not described as an asset, a store of value or a thing that will appreciate, and the room writes no valuations for insurance or for sale.

Machine-made rugs are a fourth thing, of a different kind: they are not hidden, they are named. If a piece in the room is machine-made, the first line of its listing says so, and the note gives its size and fibre and stops there, because a knot count on a machine-made rug is a meaningless number.

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Name the piece, or describe the floor.

You will get the note, photographs in daylight, and a plain answer on whether it is still in the room.

Ask about a piece