10' x 13'9" Serapi Chobi Peshawar Rug | Ruby Red Geometric Medallion | New Ghazni Wool Pile

This is a new, never used Serapi Chobi woven in Peshawar at 10' x 13'9", one of the most usable proportions in the whole of the 10x14 rug range, and it is a serious piece of hand work rather than a decorative filler. The pile is fine neat Ghazni wool, hand spun and hand-knotted, with the dry silky handle that gives the ruby red field its low quiet sheen instead of a flat printed look. Photograph 12 shows the reverse: the knots are clean and evenly packed, the drawing reads as crisply from the back as it does from the front, and the ivory fringe is the natural extension of the cotton warps. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming that it is genuinely hand-knotted, with its origin, materials and measurements recorded.

Design and Motifs

The layout is the classic Serapi formula, one of the best loved of all geometric medallion rugs. A large stepped medallion sits dead center, built from a navy octagonal frame, a coral and ivory core and outward hooked arms that finish in serrated leaves. Above and below it hang two soft blue pendant medallions, each drawn with curling cloud bands, small red rosettes and an anchor-shaped drop, shown in close detail in one of the photographs. The open red field around them carries widely spaced angular vine work: blossoming stems, palmettes, stylized cypress-like leaf forms and small hooked tendrils, drawn with the straight line and stepped outline that define the style. Four ivory corner spandrels close the field with their own leaf and flower groups, and the main navy border runs a rhythm of large palmettes and rosettes linked by vine arabesques, framed inside and out by camel gold guard stripes filled with small blossoms and zigzag bands.

A Warm Ruby Red Field Against Indigo and Ivory

The ground is a warm silky ruby red with real depth to it, closer to a ripe garnet than a bright pillar box red, and it shifts slightly with the nap so one end reads deeper and the other reads brighter. Against it the main border is a dark indigo navy, almost black in the shadowed photographs and clearly blue in the close-ups, which gives the rug the strong dark frame that makes the red glow. The corner spandrels and the inner field guard are a creamy ivory that runs toward soft peach, and the guard borders are a camel gold. Working through the medallion and the vine work are a pale powder blue, a soft sage and celadon green, coral and salmon, deep aubergine outlines and small touches of butter yellow. The palette is warm and slightly antiqued rather than harsh, so the rug settles easily with dark woods, leather, brass and cream walls.

Peshawar Weaving and Ghazni Wool

Peshawar is the center of the Chobi weaving trade, where workshops reproduce the great classical layouts on the loom with hand spun yarn and natural dyes. What separates this Oriental rug from the ordinary run of the market is the wool. Ghazni wool, from the highland flocks of Afghanistan, has a long staple and a high lanolin content, which is why the pile here feels slick and cool in the hand and why the color takes on that faint silky luster in the raking light of the detail shots. Hand spun yarn also dyes unevenly by nature, giving the field the gentle horizontal variation that collectors look for. The weave itself is tight and regular across all 10 feet of width, the selvages are wrapped in matching red, and the ends are finished with plain ivory fringe. Made in Pakistan, drawn from an old design, and built to be walked on for decades.