Vintage Tribal Hand-knotted Natural Wool Moroccan Area Rug BB6083 4'8" × 11'3" $8,000

Description of Vintage Moroccan Runner

This circa-1940 vintage Moroccan runner rug features an interesting all-over design of geometric abstractions that suggest to the eye stylized shapes of people and lighthouses while remaining utterly abstract. The design appears in dark brown against a field of neutral beige. Moroccan style area rugs have typically been woven by tribal peoples for their utility rather than for decoration. These vintage carpets experienced a growth in popularity in the West when mid-century modern designers such as Le Corbusier paired the thick piled Berber antique rugs with their minimalist furniture. Many of these Berber carpets are woven by the Beni Ourain peoples from the Rif Mountains near the city of Taza in northern Morocco. Colors vary from neutral shades to bright, stand-out hues, with designs ranging from geometric simplicity to free-flowing abstraction. The primitivist feel of many Moroccan carpets makes them attractive to modernist collectors.

Doris Leslie Blau Gallery offers Vintage Moroccan Runner aged for circa 80 years.