Vintage Beni Mguild Berber Rug
The Beni Mguild tribe is located in the mountainous region of the Moroccan Middle Atlas. Together with the Beni Ouarain, they represent the earliest Berber presence in that region as well the tribe with the longest documented legacy with the past.The second volume of Prosper Ricard ‘Corpus de Tapis Marocains’, written as a research conducted during the French Protectorate and published in 1926, is entirely dedicated to the carpets of the Middle Atlas. Ricard focuses in extreme detail on the weavings of the Beni Mguild, differentiating between the ivory ones with lozenge patterns (ichdif) and the richly coloured carpets on an all-over diamond grid substrate (tazerbit). This example belongs to a rare sub-group decorated by monochrome red open field. Recognised by their ribbed back and by a relatively sturdy texture, these rugs are also distinguished by a superior quality of wool as well as for a full range of shades of red and are highly coveted by connoisseurs of Moroccan carpets.The present carpet exemplifies all of these qualities, with the added feature of having a format that is easily adaptable to today’s interiors. Here the richly variegated background is embellished by an asymmetric, almost random arrangement of horizontal bars that enhance the painterly quality of the composition.