Dusty Blue and Peach Jaldar Diamond Medallion, Hand-Knotted Wool Rug

100% wool pile, hand-knotted, with a natural fringe at both ends. At this size the rug is light enough to lift and shake out, which is the easiest way to keep it clean.

A mid-toned blue-grey ground hides everyday marks better than a pale rug. The cream in the medallions and borders is the first colour to grey. Both inscriptions sit close to the fringe at either end, which is where a small rug takes its heaviest abrasion, so both corners are worth protecting.

This rug is signed at both ends. The inscription sits in the plain blue-grey band just inside the border at the near end, and the identical inscription is woven into the matching band at the far end, about a metre and a half away. Signed rugs are uncommon enough in this tradition; signed twice is rarer still, and it is not a slip — the second one is deliberate, placed in exactly the corresponding position.

There is a practical reason a weaver might do it. A rug this shape is approached from one end or the other, and a single signature only faces the right way from one of them: walk in from the wrong side and the maker's name is upside down. Putting the same words at both ends means the name reads correctly however you come to it, which is a small courtesy to whoever ends up living with the rug. It also doubles the chance that the name survives — the ends are where a rug wears hardest, and if one inscription is eventually lost to abrasion the other still carries it.