Jan Kath

Jan Kath Rugs — Three Generations, One Design Philosophy

Jan Kath is not a conventional rug brand. Born in 1972 in Bochum, in the industrial Ruhr region of Germany, Kath grew up as the third generation of a family of antique carpet dealers, travelling as a boy with his father to visit manufacturers in Iran and Nepal. That background gave him something rare: a deep technical literacy in traditional hand-knotting, paired with an outsider's eye for what the craft could become. Jan Kath rugs are the result of that tension — pieces that absorb centuries of Eastern weaving tradition and then push deliberately past it, into territory that has won the Red Dot Design Award, the International Domotex Award, and a place in museum collections from Frankfurt to Riga to Beijing.

The Concept Behind the Collections

What separates Jan Kath from other luxury rug makers is the idea of controlled disruption. Rather than reproduce classical Oriental patterns faithfully, Kath deliberately introduces what he calls "programmed errors" — sections that appear erased, corroded, or dissolved, as if the carpet has lived through decades of use and accumulated the marks of time. Jan Kath carpets are designed by the team at the Bochum headquarters, where senior designers produce pixel-by-pixel print instructions specifying colour and knot count before anything is woven. The aesthetic of decay — derelict industrial sites, the slow reclamation of buildings by nature, the patina of worn estate furnishings — runs through much of the work as a consistent design philosophy. The outcome is a rug that reads differently depending on how much attention you give it: striking at a glance, layered and precise up close.

Key Collections Available at SayRug

The Jan Kath portfolio spans several distinct collections, each built around a specific conceptual idea. The most sought-after are listed below, and all are available to order through SayRug for delivery across Europe.

• Erased Heritage — the flagship collection and the one most associated with the brand. Traditional Oriental patterns from Tabriz, Agra, Kirman, and Polonaise sources are hand-knotted in Tibetan highland wool and silk, then subjected to a proprietary antique-finishing process that makes each piece look as though it has spent decades on a manor house floor. Over 160 designs in this collection alone.
• Erased Classic — a related line where strict geometric repeat patterns are deliberately broken up and dispersed. The aesthetic draws on derelict industrial architecture and the visual language of decay; the result is formal structure made restless and alive.
• Spacecrafted — inspired by Hubble Space Telescope photography, this collection renders deep-space imagery in wool and silk at photorealistic knot densities. Nebulae, galaxies, and stellar formations translated into floor art.
• Polonaise — a reinterpretation of the 17th-century Persian court carpet tradition, with an all-over silk ground and a richness of colour that is hard to achieve in any other material.
• Spectrum — a more abstract, colour-driven series where gradient and tonal shift become the primary compositional tool rather than figurative motif.
• Jungle — dense botanical imagery translated into hand-knotted pile; lush, layered, and highly photorealistic in execution.
• Artwork — individual statement pieces that function more as wall-hung or floor-laid art objects than conventional rugs, produced in very small runs.

Materials, Production and Jan Kath Price

Every piece is hand-knotted using materials sourced specifically for each collection. The primary fibre is Tibetan highland wool — carded and hand-spun, it holds dye with exceptional fidelity and develops a rich surface character over time. Silk is introduced for luminosity in the Polonaise and Spacecrafted lines, and in certain pieces nettle fibre with natural dyes from Switzerland adds further textural complexity. Knot density ranges from 100 to 450 knots per square centimetre depending on the collection, and a 2.5 × 3 metre carpet requires three to five months of continuous work by a team of four or five weavers. Production takes place in the Himalayas, in Agra in India, and in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, all at workshops operating under STEP fair-trade certification. When it comes to Jan Kath rugs price, the range reflects this level of labour and material investment — entry pieces begin in the four-figure range and complex collector editions reach well into five figures. At SayRug you can browse the current catalogue and request a quote directly through the product pages.

Jan Kath in Berlin and Across Europe

Jan Kath Berlin operates from a gallery on Kurfürstendamm 65, open Monday to Saturday, where the most recent collections are shown in a dedicated showroom environment. The brand also has locations in Bochum, Cologne, Munich, and Vienna, making it genuinely accessible to European buyers who want to see the work in person before committing. For those who prefer to order online, SayRug ships Jan Kath pieces across Europe from authorised stock. Each rug can also be ordered in a custom configuration — different materials, alternative colourways, or bespoke formats are all possible through the brand's modular design system, which allows elements from different collections to be combined into a single commission.