5'2" x 5'11" Pictorial Tapestry Rug | French 17th Century Chateau Scene | Flat Weave Wall Hanging

This is a picture, not a pattern. The weaver worked a full French 17th century style garden view into 62 by 71 inches of flat tapestry weave: two stone columns framing a terrace, a carved balustrade across the foreground, a deep red patterned cloth thrown over the parapet with a bass viol leaning against it, and beyond that a long chateau with mansard roofs sitting in its park. There is no pile at all, so every detail is drawn in the weft itself, the way a hand-woven Oriental rug of this type has always been made. At just under 6 feet square it works on a wall as readily as on the floor, and it ships with our certificate of authenticity confirming it as a genuine handmade piece.

Design and Motifs

The composition is built as a window. Fluted columns rise at left and right, a carved stone balustrade of linked heart shaped scrolls and trefoil drops runs across the bottom, and a small dark panel of stylized foliage is set into the stonework at each lower corner. A swag of roses, tulips, pomegranates and leaves hangs across the top of the opening, with an oval cabochon ornament centered above it. Inside the frame, riders in red coats on pale horses gallop through the middle distance with hounds coursing ahead of them and a stag breaking for the water, while a bare winter tree on the right and a leafy tree on the left bracket the view toward the chateau. On the parapet sit the still life details that make this piece: the viol with its four strings and bow, a loose sheet of paper, and the crimson figured textile falling in heavy folds. The outer border repeats a continuous rose and acanthus garland on an ivory ground, closed by thin red and brown guard stripes.

A Soft Autumn Palette

The color reads like late afternoon light in October. Most of the field is held in ivory, oatmeal and dove taupe, with the sky and the distant palace walls kept almost colorless so the eye travels into the depth of the picture. Against that pale ground the weaver builds the foliage in muted sage, olive, moss and a smoky forest green, and the tree trunks and ground in russet, cinnamon and soft brown. The strongest note is the drapery, a deep burgundy worked with brick red, coral and small touches of pale slate blue in its woven pattern, and the same coral and crimson return in the roses of the border and the hanging garland. Blush peach, pale apricot and a chalky stone pink carry the architecture, while the corner panels and the water bring in indigo and grey blue. It is a genuinely multi-colored piece, yet nothing in it is loud, which is why it sits easily against plaster, oak or limewashed walls.

Woven in China in the European Tapestry Manner

China is where the great majority of today's finest scenic tapestry weaving is done, and the workshops there have spent decades mastering the European pictorial tradition that this cartoon comes from. The piece is a true flat weave, with the wool weft packed tight over a cotton warp and color changes handled stitch by stitch rather than by shading a pile, which is the only way a face, a horse's leg or the window bays of a chateau can be drawn this small and still stay legible. The reverse shows the loose weft ends and clean selvedges that confirm hand weaving rather than a printed or machine made panel. It is recent work in perfect condition, light enough to hang from a batten or sleeve like the room view shows, and durable enough for a low traffic floor in a study or library. Among hand-woven Oriental rugs this is the collectible decorative end of the market: one weaver, one scene, no repeats.