12' x 15' Ziegler Oriental Rug | Ivory & Gold All Over Floral Design | Hand-Knotted Wool

At 12' x 15' this is a true room-filling piece, hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation and finished with the soft luster wash that gives the pile its silky, almost reflective surface in the close-up photographs. The drawing is pure Ziegler: an ivory ground covered edge to edge with linked palmettes, rosettes and long serrated leaves, held inside a broad saffron gold border. It is one of the larger sizes we stock, and buyers shopping our oversize hand-knotted rugs tend to come to this one for the pale field, which keeps a big floor looking open rather than heavy. Condition is perfect, the pile is full from selvage to selvage, and the rug ships with a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

There is no medallion here. The field is an all over design, built from staggered rows of large rosettes and lotus palmettes joined by a thin vine that loops into small hooked leaves and pale cloudband scrolls between the flower heads. Big curved saz leaves with toothed edges lean across the vine in mirrored pairs, and every blossom is outlined in a fine burgundy line that keeps the shapes legible against the light ground. The main border carries an alternating run of round leafy rosettes and split palmettes on gold, with white lily buds tucked between them, and it is flanked by narrow guard stripes of small 8 petal flowers on olive brown. The 4 corners are resolved cleanly, the pattern turning into each corner instead of being cut off, which is a mark of a well drawn cartoon.

A Palette of Ivory, Saffron Gold and Olive Green

The field is a warm ivory that reads closer to cream or oyster beige depending on the light, with a faint abrash drifting through it the way hand-dyed wool does. Over that ground the flowers are worked in two clear golds, a bright saffron and a deeper antique brass, with olive and moss green in the leaves and small touches of soft sage and pale peach in the flower centers. Burgundy appears only as outlining and as tiny dots in the petal wells, so it sharpens the drawing without turning the rug red. The main border is a solid saffron gold, a full shade stronger than the field, and the olive brown guard stripes act as a quiet frame at the outer edge. Together the beige, gold and green read as a warm neutral from across a room and only resolve into their separate colors up close.

Woven in Afghanistan in the Ziegler Tradition

Afghanistan is where most of the world's best Ziegler style weaving is done today, and this rug is a good example of why: highland wool with real grease in it, hand-knotted at a count fine enough to draw a curved vine and a toothed leaf cleanly, and washed to bring out the natural sheen of the fleece rather than to strip it. The back shown in the photographs is even and tight, with the knot rows sitting straight across a cotton foundation, and the selvages and fringes are original and intact. If you are weighing this against a Persian piece, our guide on the difference between Persian and Oriental rugs is worth reading, but on wool quality and drawing this one stands on its own at 12' x 15'.