Vintage Moroccan Bright Colorful Hand Knotted Wool and Cotton Runner BB5899 2'6" × 7'10" $5,000

This circa-1940 vintage Moroccan rug runner features a bold raised pile multicolored all-over geometric design. Whether used to connect adjacent rooms or to decorate narrow spaces, the vintage runner carpet is a striking modernist statement. Moroccan 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 vintage looking 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 antique area rugs makes them attractive to modernist collectors.