400 × 300 cm ORIGINAL Rahmani “Rose Signature – Icon of the Collection” | 12 m² | 70 Raj | 14,376,600 knots | Masterpiece – silk on silk | years of weaving work

ORIGINAL Rahmani Qom silk, “Rose Signature – Icon of the Collection”, 400 x 300 cm

Four metres by three. Twelve square metres. 70 Raj. 14,376,600 knots, every one tied by hand in silk, on a silk foundation. The workshop describes it as the icon of the Rose Signature collection, and the number is why.

Fourteen million knots

At around 1.2 million knots per square metre across twelve square metres, this is among the largest formats a workshop will attempt at this fineness. Size and fineness pull against each other: the wider the loom, the harder it is to hold even tension across the warp, and any unevenness shows up as a wave or a bow in a rug this large. Very few weavers can do both at once.

The Rose Signature

The rose is the motif the Rahmani workshop built its name on. It is a demanding flower to weave – layered petals, curling edges, form carried entirely by graduated shading rather than outline – and it only works at a fine Raj. On a piece of this scale the drawing has room to develop instead of repeating.

Placement and care

Twelve square metres asks for a large reception room, and it should be given space rather than covered with furniture. Keep it out of direct sustained sunlight, vacuum with suction only and never with a beater bar, and rotate it once or twice a year. A rug like this should be professionally cleaned, and rarely.