Grey-Green and Rose 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 soft grey-green ground sits in the middle of the range for practicality — better than ivory, not as forgiving as a dark red. The cream in the medallions, the borders and the signature cartouche is the vulnerable colour; the cartouche in particular is worth protecting, since it is the part of the rug that cannot be replaced by anything else.

This rug is signed, and where the signature sits is worth noticing. A cream lozenge is set into the lower border carrying three or four words in Arabic script, reserved in black — not printed, not stitched afterwards, but knotted into the rug as it was made, each letter built from the same grid of knots as the medallions above it. Writing curves; a knot grid does not, so every stroke has had to be approximated in small steps, which is why the script has the slightly angular look it does.

It is placed off to one side rather than centred. Measured across the rug, the cartouche sits about a fifth of the way in from the left edge, so it reads as something added at the end of the work rather than as part of the symmetrical scheme — the weaver signing the corner of a finished piece instead of building a nameplate into the design. A signature also tells you the rug was made by someone who expected it to outlast them and wanted it known who had made it. What the words say we have not had translated; anyone who reads Urdu or Arabic could tell you in a moment.