Naksha Mushwani One-OF-A-Kind-Afghan Rug

The Mushwani kilim works in an all-over diamond lattice so fine and so densely packed that the effect at a distance is almost textile — a surface of colour that reveals itself as pattern only when you get closer. This large piece fills its field with hundreds of small diamonds, each one holding a tiny star or cross motif in a different colour: rose, cobalt, amber, olive, ivory — no two rows identical, the whole thing shifting gently across the field like something seen through moving water.

The border is deep blue with a geometric repeat that holds the composition firmly. Wholly wool, flat-woven by Turkmen craftspeople in Herat. Among the most elaborate kilims in the collection.