4'7" x 7'3" Pakistani Tree of Life Rug | Wool | Burgundy and Navy

A rectangular rug of 4'7" x 7'3", hand-knotted in Pakistan in fine natural wool. The field is a deep burgundy, almost unbroken at the edges and thick with drawing towards the centre, where a flowering tree grows out of a large vase. A dark border carries roses and birds all the way round. At this size it sits comfortably under a low table or along the foot of a bed.

The design

The tree rises from a heavy vase at the lower end, its handles scrolled, its body filled with pale palmette work, and the branches climb through the field in thin stems hung with roses, five-petalled blossoms and serrated leaves. Small birds perch throughout, a pair of long-necked cranes fly in towards the centre, butterflies sit between the stems, and a doe with a fawn stands in each lower corner of the field. Above the tree is a second, smaller vase inside a shaped cartouche, framed by a garland. The wide main border repeats a rose and a bird against a dark ground, with slim cypress-like trees between them, and is fenced on both sides by narrow guards: a teal floral stripe, an ivory zigzag band and a fine meander in cream.

The colour

The ground is a saturated burgundy, closer to oxblood where the pile lies away from the light and brighter, almost cherry, where it lies towards it. Against that the border is a near-black navy, dark enough at a distance to read as a solid frame. The drawing is worked in ivory and cream, apricot, soft rose and a little pale straw yellow, with the leaves and the inner guard stripe in a cool teal green that keeps all the red and pink from running together. Light blue appears in the flower heads and in one of the guard bands.

The making

Hand-knotted in Pakistan in fine natural wool, closely enough for the birds' tails and the vase scrolls to hold their outlines, as the back in the last photograph shows. The table dates it to the 2000s and records it as unused, and the condition is given as perfect: the wool still has its full pile, the ends are plain ivory fringe and the sides are straight. It is one of a number of hand-knotted rugs here in this scale.