11'7" x 17'8" Chinese Art Deco Rug | Beige & Navy Peking Medallion | Semi-Antique Oversize

At 11'7" x 17'8" this is a genuine palace piece, hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation and drawn in the restrained Chinese Art Deco manner: one wide open beige field, a single round medallion holding the center, and a deep navy border doing all of the structural work at the edges. What sells a rug this large is discipline rather than density of pattern, and the weaver understood that. Only a dozen or so flowering sprays float across the field, spaced so the eye travels rather than stops, which is exactly why pieces of this school still suit large modern rooms. The pile is low, soft and evenly worn in, with the quiet sheen Chinese wool takes on with age, and the handle is supple enough that the rug lies flat immediately. It ships with our certificate of authenticity, and among oversize 12x18 rugs a neutral field of this scale is uncommonly useful.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a round medallion built from interlocking fret brackets and curling cloud scrolls, with a small Shou longevity roundel knotted at the exact middle and 4 blossoms set at the compass points. Around it the field carries scattered lotus and peony sprays, a few leafy branch forms and one flame-like sprig, each drawn in outline and shading rather than heavy contour, so they read as brushwork on silk paper. The 4 corners fill with large angular fret clusters that grow into stylized blossoms and tendrils, framing the open ground without crowding it. Three distinct border systems finish the rug: a narrow Greek key meander in navy on cream, a row of pearl dots on a solid navy band, and a wide outer guard of scrolling lotus vine and small fret cartouches. Every element belongs to the classic Peking repertoire, and the drawing stays symmetrical and calm end to end across nearly 18 feet.

A Beige Field Held Together by Navy

The field is beige with a warm camel cast, lightening toward ivory through the center where the pile catches light and deepening slightly at the edges, a soft natural variation typical of undyed and lightly dyed Chinese wool. Against it the palette is deliberately narrow. Deep navy, almost black in the outer border and the medallion outlines, supplies every hard line in the rug. Between those two poles sit dove blue-grey petals, muted sage and olive green leaves, and quiet coral to salmon blossom hearts that give the field its only warm points of color. Cream is used as a resting tone in the guard stripes and pearl dots. The effect is a two-color rug at 20 feet away, beige and navy, that opens into 6 or 7 shades once you stand on it. For rooms with wood floors, cream walls or dark furniture, that combination is about as forgiving as an oversize floor covering gets.

Chinese Weaving and the Art Deco Period

Chinese workshops in and around Peking and Tianjin built their reputation on exactly this kind of piece: heavy, lustrous wool, moderate knot counts worked on a stout cotton foundation, and designs that traded Persian density for open space and sculpted outlines. Made for Western interiors from the 1920s onward, these rugs are a distinct branch of the Oriental rug world, and the best of them, like this one, survive decades of use with the pile still even and the colors still soft. The back of this rug shows a clean, regular knot line, tight navy selvages and original fringe, which tells you the loom work was done properly and the piece has been kept well. Weaving a single panel 17'8" long without drift in the border rhythm takes a large loom and a patient team, which is why surviving oversized rugs in this school are far scarcer than the room-size ones.