Fine antique style Beshir rug

This beautiful fine antique style Beshir rug is a testament to the great Turkmen tribal rugs of a bygone age. 

This handmade rug contains exquisite warming colour tones, true to it's forefathers. The colours boasts a cosy palette of warm rust-reds, deep navy, blue, yellow and cream. A homely aura of heat and light.

What is this fine antique style Beshir rug made from?

Just like the Turkmen rugs that were woven over one hundred years and more ago, this Beshir rug is made from just naturally dyed hand-spun wool. 

It has a closely clipped woollen pile. It's warps and wefts are also made from wool in keeping with it's tribal heritage.

The warp threads are the first yarns to be attached to the loom before the weaving can begin. They run from the top of the loom to the bottom. On the completed rug they also appear as the rug's fringes.

If you look at the back of the rug (our last image) you can see the knotted underside of the rug. In between the rows of coloured knots, you can see rust coloured threads sandwiched between the knot rows. These rust coloured threads that you can see are the weft threads (which are also made of wool).

How this antique style rug was made

In keeping with traditions, this handmade Afghan rug was made by an age-old carpet weaving method of hand-knotting. 

Hand-knotting is the process by which the pile of the rug is created. This is time consuming. Each tuft of pile is created by a knot. The weaver ties coloured woollen yarn onto pairs of warp threads. Knotting in lines across the width of the loom. After the knot row is completed, weft threads are passed between the warps, and these wefts are beaten firmly against the knot row. So line-by-line the colours and pattern of the rug takes shape. 

Once the rug is completed, it still does not look like the rug you see here. Oriental rugs undergo extensive finishing processes. These include: sheering the pile to a uniform pile height - the shorter the pile height, the more defined the pattern. The ends and sides will be neatly secured and bound. Other parts of the process include: singeing the wool (to burn off the wool fluff) as well as extensive tumbling, washing, stretching and alignment procedures. 

Find out some more about the Beshir design

The eye-catching field pattern of this rug is known as "gaimak-gul". An ancient design, it was most likely derived from Ikat patterns and was mostly used on tribal Chuval bags.

Using this antique style handmade rug in your home

The 5x3 size of this Afghan rug makes is a versatile option for your home decor. This is the sort of rug size that can be placed in many different locations in a home. The warming colour tones and interesting, archaic design makes this rug an appealing choice. 

With it's antique finish, pairing this Afghan rug with an anti-slip rug underlay would be a sound investment. Not only will it be held firmly in position, from a safety point-of-view it will help prevent slips and trips.

Key details:

• Country of origin: Afghanistan
• Size: 150×96cm / 4’11″x3’2″ 
• Thickness: 5mm
• Pile: Wool, hand-knotted
• Warp: Wool
• Age: New