13'3" x 14'9" Turkish Oushak Rug | Ivory Arts & Crafts Floral Panels | Semi-Antique Wool

This is a big, quiet, near square Oushak from western Turkey, hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation and measuring 13'3" x 14'9". The drawing is pure Arts and Crafts: tall paired leaves and crowned palmettes filling a slate grey ground, framed by an unusually wide ivory border of scrolling acanthus. It reads as a semi-antique piece, with colors that have already mellowed into the soft, chalky register collectors look for rather than the bright dyes of a new weaving. At almost 15 feet on the long side it belongs with the oversize room size rugs that anchor a great room or a square library, and because both dimensions are close, it sits well under a large square or round table. Every rug we ship carries a certificate of authenticity confirming it is hand-knotted, its origin, materials and measurements.

Design and Motifs

The field is laid out as a lattice of standing plants rather than a medallion. Each stem rises from a broad leafy base, splits into curling ivory tendrils, and is crowned by a large honeycombed palmette, the kind of stylized bloom that Arts and Crafts designers borrowed from Anatolian weaving in the first place. Between the crowns sit smaller heart-shaped leaf pairs and hooked buds, so the eye moves up the rug in vertical repeats of 3 across. The inner guard is a thin ivory line, and then the border opens up: nearly 2 feet of scrolling acanthus and blossom heads on a cream ground, with a soft blue undercurrent tracing the vine and a plain slate outer band closing the whole thing off. Close up, as in the detail photos, you can see the outlines are drawn in a fine clay red single line, which is what keeps such a pale rug from going flat.

A Palette of Ivory, Slate Grey and Faded Blue

Ivory is the governing color here, and it appears in at least 3 values: a warm cream in the border ground, a cooler chalk white in the leaf outlines, and a sandy oatmeal in the palmette centers. Against that sits the field, a smoky slate grey that shifts toward brown-grey where the wool takes the light and toward charcoal in the shadowed areas, giving the ground a gentle abrash typical of hand-spun yarn. The accents are what make it warm: apricot and pale clay in the flower heads, a thin rust outline around the leaves, and a powder blue that runs through the border vine and the small blossoms. The outer band is a dusty pewter grey with a single clay stripe. There is no black and no strong red anywhere, so the rug works with pale plaster walls, oak floors, linen upholstery and both cool and warm wood tones.

Oushak Weaving in Western Turkey

Oushak, or Ushak, is a weaving town in western Anatolia with a documented output going back to the 15th century, and it has always been known for large-format room size weaving rather than small fine pieces. The local wool is long-stapled and glossy, which is why Oushak pile takes a soft sheen and why faded, chalky colors look right on it instead of looking washed out. The knotting here is deliberately open by fine city standards, a decision that suits the scale of the drawing: broad leaves and big palmettes need room to breathe, and the 3/8" pile gives the surface real body underfoot. The back photo shows the flat, even grey and ivory weave and the original hand-plied cotton fringe, both consistent with workshop weaving in the Oushak tradition. If you are weighing this against a city piece, our guide to what separates an Oriental rug from other handmade traditions is worth 5 minutes.