11'5" x 14'3" Chinese Aubusson Rug | Sea Green Field with Rococo Floral Medallion | Wool Pile

This is a hand-knotted Chinese Aubusson in a deep sea green, woven with a 3/8" wool pile on a cotton foundation and measuring 11'5" x 14'3". The drawing follows the 18th century French Aubusson formula: a wide open field, a single ivory cartouche medallion at center, and a heavy garland border that turns the four corners with scrolling leafwork. At this scale it reads as one continuous picture rather than a repeating pattern, which is exactly what oversize Aubusson pieces were designed to do under a long dining table or across a formal salon floor. It is new and never used, and it ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming that it is hand-knotted.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a lozenge shaped ivory medallion framed in curling gold acanthus, and inside it sits a painted style bouquet: full blown cabbage roses in coral and wine red, a yellow rose, small scarlet and blue field flowers, and gray green foliage drawn leaf by leaf. The green field around it is left almost entirely open, a deliberate Aubusson device that gives the eye somewhere to rest and makes the bouquet read from across the room. The border does the heavy work. A salmon and ivory ground carries continuous rose garlands, blue cornflowers and gold rocaille shells, with large C scrolls sweeping inward from all 4 corners and a crowned cartouche centered on each of the 4 sides. Outside that runs a slim chain of linked gold ovals, then a plain sea green outer band that frames the whole composition like a mat around a painting.

The Sea Green and Salmon Palette

Sea green is the whole personality of this piece. The field is a muted blue leaning green, closer to weathered copper than to emerald, and because the pile is long and lustrous it shifts between a deeper teal and a soft gray green depending on where you stand. Against that cool ground the border reads warm: dusty salmon and blush pink, ivory, and a strong antique gold that outlines every acanthus leaf and shell. The flowers add the accents, coral, brick red, a deep rose wine, mustard yellow and small hits of slate blue, while the foliage is worked in two greens, a gray sage and a darker olive. The medallion ground is a clean cream that lifts the bouquet forward. It is a decorator palette rather than a tribal one, and it sits comfortably with painted paneling, gilt furniture, cream upholstery and dark hardwood.

Chinese Weaving in the Aubusson Tradition

Aubusson began as a French flat woven tapestry style, and Chinese workshops adapted it into a hand-knotted pile rug for the Western market, keeping the rococo drawing but giving it depth, weight and a soft high sheen wool. This piece shows that workshop discipline clearly: the curved outline of the medallion is smooth, the border garlands mirror correctly on both ends, and the selvages and finished ends visible in the close-up photographs are tight and even. As an Oriental rug it belongs to the European design family rather than the village geometric one, and at 11'5" x 14'3" it sits among the oversize rugs that were woven specifically to fill a large formal room from wall to wall.