Khotan rug

Woven in the Silk Road oasis town of Khotan, this piece mirrors the region from which it hails. A classic East Turkestan arrangement of pomegranates in vases is drawn against an ivory ground. This ivory coloration is rarer than the more typical red ground variant. In the border, the central band is composed of fret-work derived from Chinese weaving, as is the outer border’s colorful rendition of abstracted ‘magic mountains’. The rosettes of the innermost border are a local adaptation of Central Asian ornament.