Rugs

A belt of looms runs from Morocco to Mongolia, and it has kept the floors of the world warm for centuries. Rugs, antique and vintage, come from all along it: Karapinar Tulu sleeping rugs from Central Anatolia, woven in long wool for the dowry; Kurdish and Bessarabian kilims; Beni Ourain and Beni M’Guild pile carpets from the Moroccan Atlas; Bakhtiari and Shiraz weaving from Iran, with sofreh eating cloths and saddle bags; Ersari and Kizil Ayak Turkmen carpets from Afghanistan; Kyrgyz shyrdak felts and Uzbek gajari flatweaves. Tibetan pile carpets in tiger, dragon and saddle-rug formats, Chinese Baotou and Art Deco rugs, Kuba raffia from the Congo and hides from Mongolia widen the field.

Hand-spun wool, vegetable dye and abrash give old rugs their shifting color. A Tulu on polished concrete, a Beni Ourain under a dining table: the floor sets the scale of the room.