6'7" x 6'7" Sino Silk Square Rug | Grey Star Medallion with Gold and Silver Metal Thread | Made in China
Tilt this rug toward the light and parts of it turn to metal. Woven into this 6'7" x 6'7" silk square are real gold and silver threads, laid in flat, shimmering panels around a silver grey star medallion, among deer, birds and thousands of tiny blossoms. It is a silk on silk Oriental rug, hand-knotted in China about 40 to 50 years ago at 680 to 700 knots per square inch. Metal thread work like this is rare, and it makes the rug valuable twice over: for its silk and craftsmanship, and for the precious metal woven into it. It is in brand new condition, looks as if it came off the loom yesterday, and comes with our certificate of authenticity. This is a collector's piece in every sense.
Design and Motifs
The square layout is built in rings, each one framing the next. At the very center sits an ivory star of pointed petals around a burgundy flower head, and this is where the metal thread shows most clearly: the ground behind the petals is brocaded in gold and silver, so the star seems to glow. Around it, a large multi-lobed medallion in silver grey is packed with small rosettes and scrollwork. Four grey cross-shaped panels extend from it to the north, south, east and west, each holding its own small ivory cartouche. Spotted golden deer leap in pairs around the medallion, and long-tailed birds with golden plumage perch among peonies, roses and tulips in the field. The field sits inside a square frame of salmon lattice outlined in navy. Beyond it, a wider ivory band carries more deer, birds and ivory lobed cartouches, again set on shimmering metal thread. The outer border is silver grey with a scalloped ivory edge, full of rosettes and small leafy sprays, finished with ivory silk fringe on two sides.
The Colors: Silver Grey, Blush and Gold
The palette is soft and luminous, exactly what silk does best. Silver grey is the backbone, used for the large medallion, the 4 cross panels and the outer border, and in silk it shifts between pale pewter and a cooler blue-grey as you walk around the rug. The field is a warm taupe-blush, so densely covered in small flowers that from a distance it reads as a rosy haze. Ivory brightens the center star, the cartouches and the scalloped border edge. Within the flowers you find blush and dusty pink, salmon and coral, deep burgundy and rust red, with olive and moss green leaves and fine navy outlines that keep the drawing crisp. The deer and birds are worked in gold, caramel and tan. Then there is the metal itself: real gold and silver threads that catch the light in the brocaded panels and give the whole piece a quiet glitter no dye can copy. The fringe is natural ivory silk.
Hand-Knotted in China Before Mass Production
In the trade, "Sino" refers to rugs hand-knotted in China. This piece comes from the older generation of Chinese weaving, made before the country's rug trade turned to speed and volume, when workshops still measured themselves by skill and patience. You can see that in every part of it. A silk foundation lets the weaver pack knots extremely tightly and keeps the rug flat and perfectly square. At 680 to 700 knots per square inch, the deer have faces, the birds have individual tail feathers and the smallest rosettes are fully formed. Brocading metal thread into a hand-knotted silk rug adds another level of difficulty, because the flat metal panels must sit exactly flush with the knotted pile around them. At 6'7" x 6'7", it suits a square room, a dining area under a round table or a study, and it makes a striking wall hanging, where the gold and silver threads change with the light through the day.
