11'10" x 18' Oversize Oriental Rug | Antique Mahal All Over Design | Midnight Blue & Rust | Brand New

At 11'10" x 18' this is true palace scale, a brand new hand-knotted piece woven in India to a classical antique Mahal drawing and never put on a floor. The field is a deep midnight blue that reads almost black in low light, carrying an all over lattice of palmettes and rosettes, and it is framed by a wide brick rust border filled with ivory cartouche palmettes. The pile is fine wool on a cotton foundation, cut at a medium height that lets the drawing stay crisp while giving the rug real weight underfoot. Every rug ships with a certificate of authenticity, and this one sits squarely in the group of oversize hand-knotted rugs built for great rooms, long dining tables and open plan spaces where a standard 9x12 disappears.

Design and Motifs

The field follows the antique Mahal design logic of offset repeating rows rather than a single centre medallion, so the pattern reads evenly from any seat in the room. Thin rust vine tracery links three alternating anchor motifs: a stepped square cartouche in olive green with a red 8 petal rosette at its heart, an apricot quatrefoil holding a slate blue star, and an ivory lobed rosette outlined in red. Between them sit fan palmettes, split leaves, blue serrated flowerheads and small tulip buds, the whole field balanced left to right on a strict mirror axis. The main border carries large ivory palmette cartouches on rust, joined by an arabesque vine that turns each of the 4 corners cleanly without a broken motif. Inner and outer guard stripes in midnight blue and rust run a rhythm of small rosettes and reciprocal leaf hooks, tightening the frame. This is a disciplined all over pattern, drawn with enough space around each element that the rug never feels busy at this size.

Midnight Blue, Rust and Olive Green Color Story

The ground is a saturated midnight blue, dark enough to sit close to ink, which is exactly what makes the warm palette on top of it glow. Against that field the weavers set apricot gold, saffron, soft coral, terracotta and brick red, with olive and sage green used for leaves, square medallion grounds and small rosette centres. Ivory appears twice, once as the lobed rosettes scattered through the field and again at full strength in the border cartouches, and that repetition is what ties the two halves of the design together. The main border is a deep brick rust with a slight natural variation in tone across the length, the kind of gentle movement good wool and vegetal style dyeing give you. Slate blue flowerheads and a few chocolate brown leaf tips add cool and dark notes that keep the warm colors from tipping orange. Practically, a dark blue ground with rust and gold is very forgiving in a high traffic room and reads beautifully under both daylight and lamplight.

Woven in India: Weaving Quality and Construction

India is where most of the world's finest contemporary hand-knotted work is made today, and this rug is a clear example of why. Weaving an Oriental rug at 18 feet long means a purpose built loom and several weavers working shoulder to shoulder for a long stretch, keeping the row count and tension identical across 142 inches of width so the finished piece lies flat and square. The back shows tidy, regular knotting with legible motif outlines and a straight selvedge, and the cotton warp and weft give the rug the stability a piece this large needs. The pile wool is fine and lustrous, spun well enough that the cut ends catch light rather than looking chalky, and the hand finished ends carry a natural beige fringe. New, unwalked and perfectly proportioned, it is the kind of large format weaving that will still be worth restretching and passing along decades from now.