Cool Runner
Here is a gem of a runner that visited us for some care.
This is a tribal weaving, looks to be northwest Persian, and it is from the early 1800’s.
When these come in, dirty from decades of use, we know that a rug that is a hundred years old – or in this case almost TWO hundred years old – is going to POP back to life.
The quality of the wool, dyes, and workmanship, is just at another level when compared to most contemporary rugs.
So many corners are cut in most of today’s online rug stores. The rugs need to sell cheap, so that comes out the production. Bad fibers, bad dyes, and super quick production. And these rugs last a few years. A decade if you do your best to try to take care of it.
But fifty years? A hundred? TWO hundred? Never.
Look at these lovely motifs, and all of the natural dyes in this rug.
I adore these borders.
It’s funny… sad but funny… that with all of the talk about being earth-friendly, and choosing “sustainable” over “disposable”, that the market today is not in love with textiles that outlast us by generations.
Maybe we have lost the ability to know what “quality” means? What durable, long-lasting means, and how lovely that is?
I’m not sure where the disconnect is. When fibers and dyes that can last a century can’t find fans (except for you and me of course!), and instead we have so many disposable rugs bought and soon tossed into the landfill.
Hopefully those tossed cheap rugs are natural fiber and will deteriorate. But most rugs today are synthetic, which NEVER disintegrates. It falls apart, but it does not decompose. It only breaks up into smaller and smaller micro-plastics.
The irony is, good old wool rugs last forever in use (two centuries seems like forever to me)… while the synthetic rug (and carpet) micro-plastics will truly last forever in our landfills and waterways.
I think I’ll save the planet by finding more good old rugs to buy! 🙂
I hope you enjoyed meeting this lovely antique that is still taking family foot traffic after so many years and still smiling while it does it, and bringing smiles to the faces of those who recognize its beauty.
Hugs from San Diego,
