Red Animal Qum

100% silk pile, hand-knotted in Qum, with silk fringe at both ends and a signature cartouche in the outer guard at one end. Silk is strong in tension but delicate in every other respect — it abrades, it marks with water, and it loses lustre permanently if treated like wool.

The red field and border are forgiving of small marks, but the ivory medallion at the centre is not, and it is exactly where the eye goes first. The small birds and animals are drawn with very few knots each, so wear on a floor would soften them quickly. At 105×150cm the rug can be used on a floor people cross in socks, but it is at its best on a wall or in front of a sofa.

From across a room this reads as a classic red medallion rug. Step closer and it turns out to be something else: an animal carpet, with the animals hidden in plain sight. Start at any of the small vases in the field and look to either side of it — you will find two birds with blue wings facing each other across it, a pairing that goes back centuries in Persian design. Then look inside the ivory palmette panels above and below the medallion: small animals are drawn there among the leaves, easy to miss until you know to look for them. The effect depends on scale. None of the creatures is large enough to break up the medallion layout, so the rug keeps its formal structure from a distance, but there is enough of them that a second look always finds something new. It is a rug that rewards being hung where people can walk up to it.