11'10" x 20'1" Serapi Heriz Rug | Ivory Field, Navy Border | New Hand-Knotted Wool from India

This is a true palace piece: 11'10" x 20'1" of hand-knotted wool drawn in the classic Serapi Heriz manner, with a large ivory field, a stepped star medallion in deep navy-black, and olive green corner spandrels that frame the whole composition. It is brand new and has never been on a floor, so the pile stands full and even from end to end, and the ivory ground still carries the clean, slightly creamy tone you see in the photographs. At this scale the rug is one of the few pieces that can actually fill a 14x22 room or a long great room without leaving the furniture stranded, and it sits comfortably alongside our other oversized hand-knotted rugs. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity, and oversize weights like this one ship free to all 50 states with no freight surcharge.

Design and Motifs

The drawing is pure Serapi Heriz: angular, confident and built on straight lines rather than curves. A large 8 pointed star medallion anchors the center, filled with hooked sub-panels, small cruciform blossoms and a tiny rosette at the exact middle, then stepped outward into twin navy pendants at the head and foot. Around it the ivory field carries big serrated leaves, broad palmettes in rust and old gold, and thin angular vines that branch off at clean right angles. The 4 corners are cut as large olive green spandrels, each one holding a bird and blossom vignette above a red ground. The main border runs on a navy-black base with alternating rosettes and curled leaf cartouches, flanked by a red guard stripe of small paired botehs and blossoms and a camel inner stripe, all closed off with a plain navy outer band and ivory fringe.

A Palette of Ivory, Navy-Black, Rust and Olive Green

The field is a warm ivory with a faint buttery cast, not a cold white, which is what lets the darker colors read as rich rather than harsh. The medallion and main border are woven in a navy so deep it reads as black under most lighting, and the close-up photographs show it breaking to true indigo where the light catches the pile. Against that sit deep brick red and burgundy in the inner border and the spandrel grounds, rust and terracotta in the palmettes, and a dusty olive green that repeats in the corner panels, the leaves and the small border blossoms. Old gold and camel appear in the medallion panels and the inner guard stripe, while pale slate blue and soft peach turn up in the small flowers and give the design its depth. It is a warm, grounded palette that works with wood tones, leather and traditional upholstery.

Made in India: Weaving Quality and the Serapi Tradition

India is where most of the world's good contemporary hand-knotted weaving is now done, and this piece shows why. It is knotted entirely by hand on a cotton foundation with a 100% wool pile, and the back photograph shows tight, regular rows with the design coming through cleanly on the reverse, which is the honest test of a hand-knotted Oriental rug. Weaving a single piece at 11'10" x 20'1" means a loom wide enough to carry 142 inches of warp and a team of weavers keeping the medallion centered over 20 feet of length, which is why oversize work of this quality is comparatively rare. The wool is heavy and springy with good luster, the selvedges are firm, and the pile has the body needed to take real traffic in a large formal room for decades.