Large hand-knotted Ersari carpet

This is an impressive sized traditional Afghan carpet featuring a warm rust main colour and border whilst seamlessly infusing punchy supporting detail design colours.

Measuring 437x314cm or 14'4x10'4, this large Oriental carpet is an excellent choice for use in spacious rooms such as dining rooms and living rooms. 

The design and colours of this Large hand-knotted Ersari carpet:

The design of this large hand-knotted Ersari carpet draws upon it's regional tribal heritage with a field decorated with a theme of 32 large octagonal motifs. These motifs are known as guls (which means flower) and they are colourful! These octagonal guls have a cruciform centre with floral surround. Interestingly, these multicolour emblems do not appear to be arranged in a particular order. 

This extraordinary large Afghan Ersari carpet contains a huge number of colours. Typically, Ersari carpets are woven with just three or four colours. This carpet contains a glorious variety with rust/terracotta as the main shade along with blue, midnight blue, brown, green, ochre yellow, salmon and cream. 

There is an additional point of interest to the design. Traditional Afghan / Turkman carpet design features a repeating pattern of guls arranged in columns. There is a large prominent gul which is known as the major or primary gul, and a secondary smaller gul motif known as a minor or secondary gul which also repeats. The remarkable thing in this Ersari carpet is the secondary guls are an assortment of different tribal emblems. A charming feature.

What it is made from:

This large Ersari carpet was handcrafted in Afghanistan. It was made from just wool and cotton. 

The wool part of this carpet is the pile. The wool is hand-spun and naturally dyed. When you look closely at our images you can see the very subtle variations in the colours. 

Cotton forms the foundation threads of this carpet and these are known as warp threads. The warp threads are the first yarns onto the loom before the weaving can begin. 

How this Large Afghan carpet was made:

In keeping with it's cultural legacy, this large Afghan carpet was hand-knotted. This is an age-old carpet making technique and the weaver fastens coloured yarn onto pairs of warps threads to form a tuft of pile. This is known as a knot. Hence the term "hand-knotted". 

The knots are tied in rows across the width of the carpet. Following each row of knots, weft threads are woven and compressed against the row of knots. And this it repeated over and over. Working to a pattern, the different coloured knots create the colours and design of the carpet.

Key details: 

• Country of origin: Afghanistan
• Size: 437×314cm / 14’4″x10’4″ 
• Thickness: 6mm
• Pile: Wool, hand-knotted
• Warp: Cotton
• Age: New