Old Baluchi rug

This is a deceptively fine old Afghan tribal rug with deep, rich colours. It shows a Baluchi interpretation of the iconic Bokhara design. This pattern is depicted in a large scale format with oversize guls and minor guls.

The colours of this Afghan Baluchi rug are rich with a deep aubergine-brown main colour along with detail colours of bright orange, cream and deep blue. These are practical colours that also create a warm ambience for any room.

Find out some more about this old Baluchi rug

Woven by hand, this Baluchi rug was made near to Herat in north-west Afghanistan. This is not a newly made rug, it is in the region of 40 years old, and thus shows signs of real age and use with evidence of slight wear to the pile (see images 5 and 6). Like all of our old and antique rugs, this Baluch rug has been expertly washed and is clean and ready to use in your home.

The archaic design of this rug shows an all over theme of repeating octagonal emblems known as guls. Gul means flower, and the guls shown in this rug look like an elongated version of the Tekke tribe's gul, commonly associated with the Bokhara design. 

Baluch (or Belouch) rugs are known for their use of dark, sometimes sombre looking colours. They are renowned for making Prayer rugs as well as weaving various types of nomadic bags and trappings. In recent times, Baluch rugs have become appreciated because of their individuality, visual interest and their reasonable price-point.

What this Bokhara design Afghan rug is made from and how it was made:

This old Afghan rug is made entirely from sheep wool. It has a woollen pile hand-knotted onto woollen warp threads. The warp threads are the foundation yarns of the rug, and are the first threads attached onto the loom at the very start of the rug making process. 

A rug of this size: 152x108cm or 5'x3'7, would have been woven by one weaver. In a tribal scenario in which this rug was made, it would have been woven by a female weaver. The knotting on this rug is remarkably detailed and visually interesting; there are quite a lot of elements to the design. On a hand-knotted rug like this Baluch rug, every single tuft of pile is made from a hand-tied knot secured onto two warp threads. This rug will have something like a quarter of a million meticulously tied knots contained within it and all of these knots work together to form the colours and pattern of the rug. 

With this in mind, you can't help but be amazed by the talent of the weaver to create such a woven artwork. 

Key details:

• Country of origin: Afghanistan
• Size: 152×108cm / 5’0″x3’7″ 
• Thickness: 5mm
• Pile: Wool, hand-knotted
• Warp: Wool
• Age: It is in the region of 40 years old.  
• Condition: Please see above notes. You might notice that it has a fringe on one end only, the other end is flat woven and bound under.