Navy Star Medallion

100% silk pile, hand-knotted, with the sides overcast in blue and silk fringe at both ends. 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 navy field is forgiving of marks but shows lint and pale threads straight away. The ivory border is the opposite — it frames the whole rug and shows any spill at once. The fine serrated edges around the field and the medallion are the most delicate drawing on the rug and are what wear softens first.

Run your eye along the edge of the navy field where it meets the taupe corners. It is not a plain line: it is a narrow band of red and ivory broken into small teeth, like the edge of a saw blade, following every scallop of the cartouche. Now look at the medallion — its outline carries the same serrated rim. This toothed edge is doing a specific job. Navy and taupe are far apart in tone, and a hard straight boundary between them would look cut out, as if the navy had been laid on top. The small teeth let the two colours interlock over a few knots instead, and the flash of red and ivory in between catches the light on silk, so the edge seems to glow rather than simply stop. It is the same device used around the medallion, which is why the centre and the field feel drawn in one hand.