Cowhide rug silver grey 245×240 Silver Smoke

The silver here is not paint but the structure of the hair itself: a dark base is overlaid with frequent silver guard hair, and the shade shifts with the viewing angle, graphite from one side, ashen from the other. The macro frames show that the silver runs in strands rather than as an even bloom, gathering here and there into pale bands along the spine.

A cool range is rare among cowhides and it solves a specific problem: fitting into an interior with no warm wood in it. Grey concrete, painted boards, steel furniture legs, blue or blue-green textiles all agree with this hide better than any ginger one would. In the third frame it is shot on parquet, where the difference in colour temperature is easy to see.

The nearest dark neighbour is Midnight Breeze, deeper and without silver of this density. The warm opposite is Golden Classic.

• Material: natural leather, short hair
• Size: 2.45 by 2.40 m across the outermost points, figured shape
• Colouring: silver grey brindle, dark base with silver guard hair, white flanks
• Reverse: tanned leather
• Care: dry cleaning, a damp cloth used locally, washing not allowed
• Article: 35143321595

No piece repeats another: silver falls its own way on every animal, so both the pattern and the outline here are this hide’s own. The metres given are the overall reading across the outermost points. On tiles and laminate the hide slides, so an underlay is bought separately. Price $2140.