What is a silk rug?
A silk rug is a hand-knotted carpet woven with silk fiber as the primary pile material. Silk rugs are the most delicate of all hand-knotted carpets — the fiber is microns thick, dye-stability is fragile, and knot densities can exceed 1,500 knots per square inch on the finest pieces. The principal silk-weaving traditions are Hereke (Turkey), Qum (Iran), Persian workshop silk (Tabriz, Kashan, Isfahan), and antique Chinese silk.
What is a silk rug?
A silk rug is a hand-knotted carpet in which silk fiber forms the pile, the foundation, or both. Pure silk on silk is the rarest and most prized construction; silk on cotton is more common and remains an exceptional weaving. Silk-and-wool pieces use silk for the floral spray or highlight on a wool ground.
Silk allows fineness of weave unreachable in wool. The fiber is microns thick, dye chemistry is fragile, and knot densities range from 600 to more than 1,500 knots per square inch on the finest workshop pieces. The drawing can render calligraphy, pictorial scenes, and miniature detail. A silk rug is the closest thing weaving comes to painting — and it is washed, restored, and cared for accordingly.
From Sasanian Persia to the Hereke workshop.
Silk rug weaving traces to Sasanian Persia and the Tang dynasty in China, where silk had been cultivated for more than a millennium before it migrated to the loom. Early silk weaving served the court — ceremonial pieces, prayer rugs, gifts of state — rather than the household.
The Ottoman imperial workshop at Hereke, founded in 1843 under Sultan Abdulmecid, institutionalized silk weaving as a workshop discipline and set the standard against which all later silk pieces are measured. Qum followed in Iran in the 20th century, becoming a major silk-weaving center by mid-century. Today the finest silk rugs continue to be woven in Hereke, Qum, and the workshop cities of Tabriz, Kashan, and Isfahan.
How a silk rug is built.
A silk rug is hand-knotted, knot by knot, by a single weaver on a fixed vertical loom. The pile is pure silk; the foundation is silk on the finest workshop pieces, or cotton on more common silk-on-cotton constructions. Each knot is tied around two warp threads — the Persian asymmetric knot in Iran, the Turkish Ghiordes knot in Anatolia.
Knot density on silk ranges from 600 to more than 1,500 knots per square inch — densities unreachable in wool. A single silk rug of room size can hold more than ten million knots, each tied by hand. The finest workshop pieces take a master weaver one to three years to complete.
Five signs of a real silk rug.
- 01
Lustrous, shifting sheen
Silk reflects light differently from every viewing angle. The same rug reads jewel-bright from one direction and quietly muted from another.
- 02
Extreme fineness of weave
Silk allows knot counts unreachable in wool — 600 to more than 1,500 knots per square inch. The drawing is fine enough to render calligraphy and miniature scenes.
- 03
Lightweight feel
A silk rug is dramatically lighter than a wool rug of the same size. The hand is thin, cool, and supple rather than the dense, springy hand of mountain wool.
- 04
Careful binding and selvedge
Workshop silk pieces show meticulous edge binding, slim selvedges, and fringe that is part of the warp rather than added later. Construction is uniformly tight.
- 05
Workshop signature
Hereke and the finest Qum pieces are signed at the top or bottom of the field by the master weaver or the workshop, woven directly into the rug.
Hereke, Qum, Persian silk — and antique Chinese.
The four principal silk traditions and the workshop families within them.
Hereke
Ottoman court workshop in Turkey, founded 1843. Pure silk on silk, exceptionally fine. The standard against which other silks are measured.
Qum
Iranian workshop city. Silk Persians since the 20th century — calligraphic, garden, prayer, and pictorial designs. Often more than 1,000 knots/in².
Persian Silk Workshops
Tabriz, Kashan, Isfahan, and Nain all produce silk and silk-highlight pieces. Wool-and-silk pieces use silk for the floral spray on a wool ground.
Antique Chinese Silk
Late Qing dynasty and early 20th century. Quiet, restrained palettes — ivory, soft blue, gold — on silk foundations with metallic-thread highlights.
By hand. Alone. Always.
A silk rug must be hand-washed, individually, by an artisan who works with silk. Rotary machines felt the fiber. Dry-cleaning solvents destabilize the dye chemistry. Batch-washing alongside wool rugs contaminates the silk with lanolin. Every silk piece at Horizon is dye-tested before water touches the rug, washed alone with pH-balanced soap and temperature-controlled water, and dried flat on slatted frames.
Restoration on silk — reweaving the foundation, binding fringe, color-matching faded areas — is hand-done in the atelier with silk yarn dyed to the rug's original palette. The repair disappears into the weave when done correctly.
Continue your reading.
Antique Rugs
Hand-knotted carpets woven before 1925 — vegetable dyes, hand-spun wool, traditions machines cannot replicate.
Persian Qum
Iran's principal silk-weaving city. Calligraphic, garden, prayer designs at 1,000+ knots per square inch.
Hereke & Silk Cleaning
Hand-washed silk rug cleaning — every piece individually washed on our dedicated atelier floor.
Questions about silk rugs.
How is a silk rug different from a wool rug?
Silk rugs are woven with silk as the primary pile fiber rather than wool. Silk is microns thick — far finer than wool — which allows knot densities of 600 to more than 1,500 knots per square inch and fineness of drawing impossible in wool. Silk also has a lustrous sheen that shifts with viewing angle, a lightweight hand, and far more fragile dye and structure than mountain wool.
How do I identify a real silk rug?
Real silk shows a lustrous sheen that shifts with viewing angle, a cool and lightweight hand, and dramatic fineness of weave. The pile burns to a fine ash with a smell of burnt hair when a single fiber is tested (do not test the rug itself). Mercerized cotton (often sold as 'art silk') is heavier, brighter in a uniform way, and burns to a paper ash. When in doubt, a master artisan can identify the fiber by touch and microscope.
Where do the finest silk rugs come from?
The principal silk-weaving traditions are Hereke in Turkey (Ottoman court workshop, founded 1843), Qum in Iran (20th-century workshop city, often more than 1,000 knots per square inch), and the Persian silk workshops of Tabriz, Kashan, and Isfahan. Antique Chinese silk pieces from the late Qing dynasty and early 20th century are also highly valued.
Can a silk rug be cleaned?
Yes — but only by hand, by an artisan who works with silk. Silk dyes are fragile, the foundation is delicate, and a rotary brush will felt the fiber and split the warps. At Horizon, every silk rug is washed individually with pH-balanced soap and temperature-controlled water on our dedicated atelier floor, never in a batch with wool rugs and never on a machine.
Are silk rugs durable enough for the floor?
Silk rugs are typically reserved for low-traffic areas — bedrooms, formal sitting rooms, display walls — rather than hallways or under dining tables. The fiber is fine and the construction delicate. A silk rug rotated and cared for will last generations, but it requires more conservation discipline than a wool piece.
Letters from across the Northeast.
A few of the rugs we've cared for — and the families who trusted us with them.
“They returned an heirloom Tabriz — the colors look exactly as my grandmother described them.”
“A 1920s Heriz I thought was beyond saving came back better than the day my parents bought it.”
“Our clients trust us with eight-figure homes. Horizon is the only atelier I send their rugs to.”
More from Horizon.
Other ateliers, every service we offer, and the rest of our story — a few directions to explore.
Bring us your silk rug.
Hereke, Qum, Persian silk, antique Chinese — whichever silk tradition you own, we hand-wash with the process appropriate to its construction. Complimentary pickup from Manhattan, the Hamptons, Westchester County, Greenwich, and Stamford.
By hand · By the Cohen family · By appointment