Red Lattice Jaldar

100% wool pile, hand-knotted in Pakistan, with ivory fringe at both ends. Wool is naturally resilient and hard-wearing, and the dense pile of a Jaldar is made for everyday floor use.

The red field is plain between the güls, so it will show vacuum tracks and pile shading more than a busy field would — it will look slightly lighter or darker depending on which way the pile is brushed. On a rug this small, at a doorway or bedside, the fringe takes most of the handling and is the part to watch.

Jaldar takes its name from jal, a net, and this rug shows why. Instead of placing its güls loose on the field, it catches each one in a net of narrow bands, so the field becomes a grid of separate compartments. Count them: two across, five down, ten in all, each with a stepped diamond gül at its centre. Now look at where the bands meet. Every junction on the centre line is marked by a small diamond of its own, so the net has knots as well as cords. The compartments themselves are not quite rectangles — their corners are cut off where the lattice bands thicken — which is what stops the grid from looking mechanical. On a small rug like this the whole design can be read at a glance: ten güls held in one net, with the red of the field showing through every opening.