5'7" x 9' Chinese Aubusson Rug | Ivory and Black | Rectangular

A 5'7" x 9' rug knotted in China to an Aubusson design, the French pattern of rose garlands and scrollwork that Chinese workshops have woven for the export trade for decades. At a glance it reads as two halves: a deep black centre carrying a pale oval panel of flowers, and a broad ivory border thick with roses and acanthus. The condition is noted as excellent, and the photographs show the drawing still crisp at the corners.

Design

The field is an inky black cartouche with scalloped, bracketed sides, drawn so that the outline itself becomes part of the ornament. At its centre sits an upright oval panel framed by a twisted gold rope, holding a bouquet of open roses, buds and small blue flowers tied at the stem. Wreaths and sprays of roses sit above, below and to either side of the oval, floating free on the black rather than joined by vines. Around all of this runs a wide ivory border filled with curling acanthus leaves, ribbon scrolls and further rose garlands, with a corner rosette set into a leafy scroll at each end, and the whole rectangular panel is closed by a narrow black outer band.

Colour

The black of the field is flat and even, and it does the work of making everything else look brighter than it is. Against it the roses run from a chalky shell pink through salmon to a deeper rose at the heart of each flower, with leaves in olive and sage and a few small blossoms in a dusty slate blue. The border ground is ivory warming towards oatmeal where the light falls, and the scrollwork over it is worked in tan, honey and old gold, so the border reads as a single warm mass from across a room and only separates into leaves and ribbons close up.

Making

The weave is recorded as hand-knotted and the origin as China. The surface is low and dense, with the pattern drawn in fine steps rather than broad blocks, which is what allows the petal shading and the thin gold rope around the medallion to hold their shape. The selvedges are bound in cream and sit flat, and the corner shown turned back in the last photograph confirms that the pattern carries through clearly to the reverse. It is one of the hand-knotted rugs we carry in a European pattern worked outside Europe, and it should be understood as a Chinese rug with a French design rather than a French one.