12' x 14'6" Pakistani Ziegler Rug | Wool | Ivory and Pale Gold

A hand-knotted rug measuring 12' x 14'6", knotted in Pakistan in fine wool with a quarter inch pile. At this width and length it sits in oversize territory, big enough to carry a full seating group with the furniture legs on the pile. The first impression is of a single pale ground, wheat gold shading towards ivory, with the drawing held only a shade or two away from it.

Design

The field carries an allover Ziegler pattern: broad serrated leaves, split palmettes and eight-pointed rosettes strung on a thin trellis of vines that runs corner to corner without a medallion to interrupt it. The rosettes are outlined in a fine red line, which is most of what pulls them forward from the ground. Small four-petal flowers and single stars fill the gaps between the larger heads. A wide main border repeats a rosette and a curled cartouche between paired leaves, set between narrow guard stripes of running vine and a row of upright lotus buds along the outer edge. The layout is symmetrical along both axes, and the rectangular shape is squared cleanly at the corners.

Colour

The ground is pale wheat gold with a soft abrash running in horizontal bands, lighter towards ivory in the upper half and a touch deeper towards honey at the ends. Against it the leaves are drawn in a greyed sage and a dusty olive, the palmettes in buff and light tan, and the outlines in a thin brick red that reads closer to madder where the pile is dense. A few cocoa brown flower heads and small squares of deep red sit at intervals across the field and border, and they are the darkest notes anywhere in the rug. Nothing is high contrast; the whole palette stays within a narrow band of warm neutrals.

Making

Hand-knotted in Pakistan in fine wool, clipped to a quarter inch pile, with a plain ivory fringe at both ends. The reverse shows the pattern clearly through an even, regular knot line, and the low clip leaves the drawing crisp rather than blurred. The table records the rug as new and the condition as perfect.