10'6" x 12'8" Afghan Serapi Rug | Teal Green and Salmon Geometric Medallion | Wool on Wool, New

This 10'6" x 12'8" Afghan Serapi is a large, confident piece of village drawing worked entirely by hand in handspun wool on a wool foundation. The weaver has taken the old Serapi cartoon, a stepped hexagonal medallion floating on an open field, and dressed it in a palette you almost never see at this scale: a soft teal green field, a salmon medallion and spandrel surround, and a deep indigo border. The rug is brand new and never used, with a thick, lustrous pile that still has full height across the whole surface, hand-knotted side finishes and hand-tied brown fringes at both ends. As with every rug we import directly, it ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming that it is a genuine hand-knotted Oriental rug, not a machine-made reproduction.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a broad salmon hexagon outlined in a fine sawtooth of indigo, and inside it sits an 8 point star rosette built from ivory and teal lobes around a small squared core. Hooked arrowheads, tiny flowering sprigs and paired blossoms fill the medallion ground, so nothing reads as empty even at this width. Above and below, tall stepped pendants push out into the field like anchor points, each finished with palmette heads and small latch-hook arms. The teal field around the medallion carries enormous curled serrated leaves and orange palmette clusters, drawn large and angular in the way that makes geometric medallion rugs read clearly from across a room. All 4 corners are filled with salmon spandrels carrying bold black vinework and leafy scrolls, and the indigo main border runs a steady procession of shield cartouches, 8 petal rosettes and leaf pairs between narrow ivory and teal guard stripes.

A Teal, Salmon and Indigo Color Story

The field is a muted teal green that shifts between sage and sea green depending on the light and the direction of the pile, a natural abrash that gives the open ground real depth rather than a flat printed look. Against it, the salmon of the medallion and spandrels reads warm and slightly apricot, tipping toward soft copper where the wool catches the light. The main border is a deep indigo, almost black in the photographs taken at an angle, and it frames the warm center so the whole rug settles rather than shouts. Within the border and guard stripes there are pale ivory, wheat gold and soft powder blue notes, plus small accents of charcoal outlining. The combination of green, salmon and navy is unusual for this pattern and works particularly well with walnut and oak floors, brass, cream upholstery and mid tone blue or olive walls.

Woven in Afghanistan on a Wool Foundation

Afghan workshops have become one of the best sources in the world for large hand-knotted rugs in the old village patterns, and this Serapi shows why. The wool is handspun, which is why the pile takes color unevenly in the best sense and gives the field its living surface, and the weaver has knotted it onto a wool warp and weft rather than cotton, producing a rug that is supple, heavy in the hand and forgiving underfoot. The back photograph shows a tight, even knot line with the drawing legible from the reverse, which is the clearest sign of disciplined bench work over many months. At 10'6" x 12'8" it fills a full living or dining room and sits comfortably in the same footprint as 10x13 area rugs, with enough pile depth to handle a dining table and chairs for decades.