10' x 10'3" Round Oriental Rug | Gonbad Dome Design | Fine Wool & Silk Pile

Gonbad means dome, and this circle of wool and silk is the design in its purest form: a round 10' x 10'3" floor piece where every element radiates from one ivory star at the center, exactly the way the tilework of a domed ceiling reads when you stand underneath it and look straight up. It is a difficult drawing to execute on a round loom, because the cartoon has to close perfectly on itself with no seam and no crowding at the rim, and this weaver managed it. The pile carries silk through the outlines and the paler motifs, which is why the arches and the star points catch light differently from the wool ground around them. It is brand new, never used, and ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming it is hand-knotted. As a genuine hand-knotted Oriental rug rather than a machine-made circle, it belongs in the small group of serious large round rugs available at this level of drawing.

Design and Motifs

At the center sits an 8 point star medallion filled with a gold and ivory garden of curling vine, small palmettes and paired bird figures, ringed by a narrow olive band. From that star, wedge-shaped panels fan outward like the ribs of a cupola, each one separated by a beaded pearl line that reads almost like grout between tiles. The next ring is a procession of arched niches, alternating black and burgundy grounds, every arch holding its own vase-and-palmette bouquet so that no two neighbors look identical at a glance. Beyond the arches runs a wide tan main border set with pale green shield cartouches and burgundy rosettes joined by scrolling arabesque, then a red and ivory barber-pole stripe, and finally a solid black outer edge that frames the whole circle cleanly. The hand-tied ivory fringe follows the curve the entire way around, which is a mark of a properly finished round weave rather than a rectangle cut down.

A Palette of Black, Burgundy, Olive Green and Ivory

The color story works in concentric rings rather than one dominant field. Ivory and warm champagne hold the middle, shading into antique gold through the medallion petals, so the eye is pulled straight to the center. The radiating wedges bring in soft sage and olive green against wine burgundy, with small accents of coral, salmon pink and pale blue scattered through the flower heads. The arched niches alternate deep black and dark burgundy, and that black is what gives the rug its weight: it repeats in the tiny floral rosettes of the border and then again in the solid outer edge, bracketing the warmer tones between two dark anchors. Brown and tobacco tones fill the main border ground and keep the transition from the busy field to the black rim from feeling abrupt. The silk in the pile makes the ivory outlines and the green panels shift between matte and luminous as you walk around the circle, so the rug looks noticeably different from the doorway than it does directly overhead.

Weaving Quality and Origin

This rug was made in China, on a cotton foundation, by workshops that took up the classical Gonbad cartoon and now weave it to a very high standard. Judge it on the weave rather than the label: the close-up with the ruler shows tight, even rows with no lazy lines, small enough knots to render a 3 knot curl in a vine without breaking it into stairsteps, and clean color changes at every arch outline. Silk is used as a highlight fiber through the ivory tracery and the lighter motifs, which is the traditional way to make fine drawing read at a distance, while the wool pile carries the body and the wear. Selvedges are wrapped tight and flat, the circle is true with no waviness at the rim, and the fringe is knotted rather than glued or machine-serged. For a 10' x 10'3" round at this density, the amount of loom time in it is considerable, and the piece has never been on a floor.