5'9" x 9' Chinese Aubusson Rug | Beige | Rectangular

A rectangular rug of 5'9" x 9', made in China in the Aubusson manner: a pale beige ground carrying roses, ribbons, a pheasant and a group of musical instruments, with no medallion and no repeating lattice. The surface is smooth and close, so the drawing reads like a painted panel rather than a knotted pattern. The spec table records no material, so none is claimed here. Condition is given as excellent.

The design

The field is open at the centre and filled towards the ends. An arched canopy of ribbon and leafwork crowns the upper half, hung with two long garlands of roses that sweep down and inwards. A pheasant stands at the middle of the rug, tail trailing across the field, with flowering branches behind it. At the lower end sits the group shown in close-up: a lute or guitar laid on its back, a horn, a slim flute and a tasselled cord, half buried in open roses and blossom sprays. The corners turn into acanthus scrolls drawn in outline, and a plain band runs round the outside with only a narrow line to separate it from the field. Scattered single rosebuds and small leaves fill the quieter stretches.

The colour

The ground is a warm beige, closer to oatmeal in the open centre and to light tan along the outer band. Against it the roses run from a chalky shell pink to a deeper rose at the heart of each flower, with a few white blossoms and small dots of pale blue in the smaller sprays. Foliage is olive and sage, dulled rather than bright, and the scrollwork and instruments are worked in soft gold and ochre a shade or two from the field itself. Nothing in the palette is saturated, so the pinks carry the pattern and everything else holds steady behind them.

The making

The rug is recorded as hand-knotted in China, in a size of 5'9" x 9' that sits in the 4x6 to 6x9 band. Aubusson refers to the French workshop tradition this drawing comes from, not to where this piece was woven; the design travelled, the weaving is Chinese. The folded corner shows a flat, even back with the pattern legible from the reverse and a plain selvedge along the edge, which is what gives the face its smooth, tapestry-like surface. The table gives no age, and the condition is listed as excellent. It can be seen alongside the rest of our hand-knotted stock.