Baluch rug
eastern Persia
circa 1900
Size:140 x 86cm
A great number of old oriental rugs are made using just four ingredients – white wool, brown wool (or camel hair) and the dyestuffs indigo and madder. With Baluch rugs, tough goat’s hair for selvedges can be added.
In this small rug with a glossy woollen pile there not much white wool and it is the interplay between the differing shades of madder and the black blue indigo which make it such an attractive old rug. There is a variety of harmonious and rich madder tones attained through the dyer’s use of different mordants. Particularly striking here is the presence of a beautiful shade of aubergine. This is obtained by treating the wool with a very iron rich mordant in the madder dyeing process.
