12'8" x 17'11" Indian Jaipur Rug | Wool | Burgundy and Gold

A carpet of 12'8" x 17'11", hand-knotted in India in a Jaipur design, with a 3/8" wool pile. The field is a dark red that sits close to burgundy, covered corner to corner with a vine that carries gold palmettes, ivory rosettes and long serrated leaves. A wide gold border runs all the way round, and the outer edge and end panels return to the same red as the field.

The design

There is no medallion. The drawing is an all-over vine, laid out in mirrored repeats that run the length of the field, with thin ivory stems looping between large open palmettes and rosettes, small eight-petal star flowers scattered in the gaps, and big saz leaves curving over the stems with their serrated edges outlined in dark red. The main border is a gold ground carrying alternating palmettes and leaf sprays, drawn in burgundy, sage and ivory, and it is flanked by narrow guard stripes of running vine on a paler ivory ground. At the corners the border pattern is turned rather than mitred cleanly, which is usual in work of this kind and leaves the palmettes slightly out of step where the sides meet the ends.

The colour

The ground is a deep madder red that reads almost black in the fold shadows and warms to a clear wine colour where the light catches the pile. Against it the vine work is worked in several closely related tones: a full yellow gold in the larger leaves, a softer ivory in the stems and smaller flowers, and a grey-green sage in the rosette centres, with occasional touches of pale rose and apricot inside the palmettes. The border ground is a lighter, flatter gold than the field motifs, so the pattern inside it is read mainly through its burgundy and sage outlines.

The making

Hand-knotted in India, wool pile at 3/8", rectangular, and listed in new perfect condition. The reverse photographs show an even, close weave with the pattern legible knot by knot from the back, and plain ivory fringe finishing both ends. At this size it is among the larger pieces in our hand-knotted stock, a true room-size rectangle rather than a runner or a scatter, and it will want furniture standing on it rather than around it.