The Rug Library

Textiles absorb moisture from the air: dry heated winter air makes fibres shrink, while damp air makes them swell, stressing old rugs.

The V&A's Ardabil carpet, dated 1539 and made in Iran, is lit only intermittently for a few minutes at a time and displayed behind glass to help preserve its colours.

Hanging a rug on a Velcro support spreads its weight evenly across its width; because Velcro is too stiff to sew directly to a textile, it is attached via a hand-stitched, prewashed cotton sleeve or tape.

The Metropolitan Museum's Department of Textile Conservation cares for a collection of roughly 36,000 textiles, including carpets, tapestries, embroideries and costumes.

Some carpets at the Met are pressure-mounted for vertical display: held against a padded support by light pressure from an acrylic sheet rather than by stitching.

The Canadian Conservation Institute advises that a rug hung for display be stitched to its mount around the edges and with a grid of vertical and horizontal stitching, so its weight is evenly spread.

A common museum policy exhibits textiles at about 50 lux for limited periods, such as three months, then rests them, capping total light exposure over time.

The Victoria and Albert Museum has used low-temperature treatment on large rolled textiles as part of its integrated pest management.

Carpet weaving was introduced into the Jaipur Central Jail, founded in 1854 under Maharaja Sawai Ram Singh II, as part of a prisoner-reform programme, and jail weaving later spread to Ajmer and Bikaner.

Colonial-era jail carpet workshops in Rajasthan were intended to discipline prisoners through craft work and to offset the cost of imprisonment through the sale of carpets.

The cotton durrie tradition of Salawas near Jodhpur is traced to the mid-19th century and is practised mainly by the Prajapat community, who have handed the craft down over generations.

Panja durries take their name from the panja, a claw-like metal beater used to pack the weft firmly after each pass, producing a dense, durable flatweave.

Besides Jaipur, Ajmer and Bikaner, carpet and durrie weaving in Rajasthan is also found in smaller centres such as Tonk and Barmer, and Bikaner and Tonk are known for felted namdah rugs.

Bikaner’s jail carpet workshop is reported to have used very large metal looms set up outdoors in open courtyards.

Salawas panja durries are known for strong colours such as deep reds, yellows and blues, often in bold geometric designs.

Asia InCH describes Rajasthan’s durries as featuring geometric compositions, floral elements and motifs drawn from desert landscapes.

Jaipur’s jail carpets were often woven to historic designs, reportedly drawing on carpets in the Jaipur maharaja’s own collection.

Before Akbar (r. 1556–1605), few carpets appear to have been made in India; his court historians record royal carpet workshops in Fatehpur Sikri, Lahore and Agra.

By the 17th century, Indian weavers were replacing Persian-style motifs with specifically Indian plants, flowers, animals and human figures, according to the Met.

Ottoman court carpets used designs shared with court ceramics, bookbindings and textiles, including the 'saz style' of long sinuous leaves and stylised flowers.

The Kevorkian Hyderabad Carpet, nearly 16 metres long, may have been made for the palaces of the Deccan sultans who ruled Hyderabad in the 17th century; it is now in the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha.

Deccan carpets of the 17th century often feature a vivid red ground, and their borders can echo the manuscript illumination of the period, with repeated arabesque cartouches.

From the 14th to the 17th century, the Deccan's Muslim courts produced arts that blended elements from Iran, West Asia, sometimes Europe, and both southern and northern India, including carpets and textiles.

Warangal in Telangana is known for flat-woven durries with geometric, angular motifs, traditionally in reds and blues, and received a Geographical Indication tag in 2018.