10' x 13' Chinese Aubusson Rug | Soft Rose Pink & Gold Floral Medallion | Bamboo Silk Pile

This is a hand-knotted Chinese room-size piece drawn in the French Aubusson manner: a soft rose pink ground, a wide gold surround, and a long oval medallion that holds a second rectangular cartouche at the center. The pile is bamboo silk, a plant-based fiber spun for shine, and it gives the gold areas that liquid, light-catching surface you can see shifting from pale honey to deep caramel as the camera moves around the rug. The outlines of the flowers and scrolls are clipped in relief, so the drawing stands slightly proud of the ground the way the best Chinese floral weaving always has. At 10' x 13' it covers a full formal room with pile to spare, and it is in perfect condition with even pile height corner to corner. Every rug we sell, this one included, ships with a certificate of authenticity. If you are comparing it against Persian goods, our guide on what actually separates a Persian rug from a broader Oriental rug is worth five minutes.

Design and Motifs

The composition works in three nested frames. A tall oval, outlined in pale blue, pink and a fine navy rope twist, floats in the gold field and encloses a rose pink reserve. Inside that sits a rectangular cartouche with lobed shoulders, edged in teal and a run of pearl beading, filled with mauve, apricot and dusty pink roses on jade and sea green leaves. Bouquets anchor the top and bottom of the oval, each one carrying an open rose flanked by olive gray acanthus scrolls that curl like ribbon. The gold field outside the oval is deliberately quiet: large tone-on-tone scrolling leaves and stylized cloud bands in olive gray, with 4 corner bouquets of roses, iris and small navy blossoms at the corners and center of each side, plus a lavender vase form at the midpoint of the ends. The main border is left almost empty so the flowers read clearly, and the outer guard runs a repeating pink crescent and gold disc on a teal ground, finished with a plain rose outer band.

A Study in Rose, Gold and Green

The dominant color is a soft rose pink that deepens toward raspberry where the light falls directly on the pile and cools to a powdery blush where it does not. It is used twice, once as the outer band that frames the whole rug and again as the reserve inside the oval, which is what gives the layout its balance. Against it, the gold ground ranges from pale champagne through honey to a warm caramel, all from the same yarn catching light at different angles. The greens are the third voice: a deep bottle green in the leaf tips, jade and pale sea green in the leaf bodies, and a muted olive in the scrollwork. Accents come in small, careful doses, coral and burnt orange rose hearts, ivory petal edges, mauve and lavender, cornflower and navy blue florals, and a soft slate blue in the outlines and guard border. The overall effect is decorative and light rather than heavy, which is why this palette sits so easily with painted furniture, pale walls and antique gilt.

Chinese Weaving in the Aubusson Tradition

Chinese workshops have been weaving European court patterns for the Western market for well over a century, and the Aubusson formula, an open field, an oval reserve, roses rather than palmettes, suits their hand perfectly. The knotting here is even and generous, tied on a cotton foundation with a full bamboo silk pile, and the carving around every motif is done after weaving with hand shears, a finishing step that gives the design its shadow line and its slight three-dimensional lift. The back shows straight, regular rows and clean selvedges, with the original hand woven tag still attached. At this scale it belongs in a formal living room, a dining room where the chairs need to pull back onto pile, or a wide entry landing, and buyers who need this footprint can browse more 10 x 13 area rugs alongside it.