Rose and Teal Serrated Leaf Medallion, Hand-Knotted Wool Rug

100% wool pile, hand-knotted, with a natural fringe at both ends. Wool is resilient and forgiving underfoot, which makes this a practical choice for a corridor that gets real use.

A mid-toned rose ground sits between the extremes and hides everyday marks reasonably well. The cream main border is the vulnerable part: it runs the full length on both sides, it is the palest thing on the rug, and on a runner the edges are where feet cross onto and off the rug. At nearly three and a half metres this is also a heavy piece to handle — roll it rather than fold it, and use two people.

The long tapering forms set diagonally across the field are serrated leaves, and they are the oldest thing on this rug. They are generally understood to descend from the great Caucasian dragon carpets, where a pair of them flanked each medallion as the body of a creature, the row of hooks along the edge being what survived of its claws after the drawing had passed through several generations of weavers. By the time the motif reached the village looms it had settled into a leaf, and it is drawn as one here: a narrow body tapering to a point, a spine of small squares down the middle, a tendril curling off the tail.

It is worth finding on the rug rather than taking on trust, because the giveaway is easy to see. Pick any of the pale leaves and follow its outline. One edge runs smooth and the other carries a row of hooks, all facing the same way along its length. A leaf invented purely as ornament would almost certainly have been drawn symmetrically, with hooks on both sides. This one is not symmetrical, and that is the trace of what it used to be.