14' x 19'5" Agra Oriental Rug | Soltanabad All-Over Design | Hand-Knotted Wool, New

This is a big, serious floor piece: 14' x 19'5" of hand-knotted wool woven in Agra, India, in the Soltanabad manner, with a warm red field carried edge to edge by a broad beige main border. At 272 square feet it belongs with true oversize rugs, the kind of scale that covers a great room or a long formal dining table without the furniture ever stepping off the wool. The weave is even, the wool is glossy rather than dry, and the handle is supple enough that a rug this size still rolls and lies flat easily. It is new, never used, in perfect condition, and ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming it is genuinely hand-knotted.

Design and Motifs

There is no central medallion here. The drawing is a repeating all-over design built on staggered rows of large rosettes and shield-shaped palmettes, linked by thin gold vine work and serrated leaves that lean at angles across the field. Look closely at the close-up shots and you can read the rhythm: an ivory rosette, then a pale blue cartouche with a stepped outline, then an olive and gold palmette, the sequence shifting one step sideways on each row so the eye never locks onto a grid. Small cross-shaped flowerheads and tulip sprigs fill the gaps. The main border runs a classic turtle palmette and rosette chain on beige, drawn with generous spacing and flanked by two narrow guard bands, one carrying a repeating red flowerhead, the other a small geometric meander in olive and rust. The corners resolve cleanly, which on a 4 corner layout this wide is a sign of a well-planned cartoon.

A Warm Red Field with Gold, Green and Beige

The ground is a warm brick red that reads tomato in direct light and deepens toward terracotta in the angled shots, with gentle tonal movement across the width from the natural variation in the dyed wool. Against it sit soft gold and antique ivory rosettes, mossy olive and true green leafwork, and a recurring pale slate blue that cools the whole thing down and keeps the red from shouting. Salmon and dusty pink appear inside the larger palmettes as a midtone between the red and the gold. The border is a pale wheat beige, warm rather than stark white, with red flowerheads and olive vines that tie straight back to the field. The narrow outer stripe returns to red so the rug ends on the same note it begins. It is a warm, lamp-friendly palette that sits well with wood floors, leather, brass and oiled walnut.

Woven in Agra: Indian Hand-Knotting Today

Agra has been a weaving center since the Mughal court workshops, and today the region produces much of the world's best contemporary hand-knotted work. If you have wondered where an Oriental rug like this one fits, that is the honest answer: an Indian workshop weaving a historic Soltanabad drawing on a cotton foundation with a durable wool pile. The back, visible in the fold-back photograph, shows tidy rows of knots and clear definition of every motif, and the sides and the hand-tied fringe are finished properly. A room-filling piece at this scale takes a team of weavers the better part of a year, and the reward is a heavy, flat-lying rug with a medium pile that takes traffic and cleans well. Despite the weight, it ships free to all 50 states.