6'6" x 9'7" Pakistani Ziegler Rug | Hand-Knotted Wool | Beige and Olive

A hand-knotted rug from Pakistan measuring 6'6" x 9'7", with a pile of natural wool and an all-over floral drawing in the Chobi Ziegler manner. The field is beige throughout, with no medallion and no open ground: palmettes and serrated leaves run in staggered rows from one end to the other, joined by thin vines that are barely a shade darker than the ground they cross. Seen flat, as in the third and fourth photographs, the whole thing reads as a single warm tone with rust and olive scattered through it.

The design

The field carries four or five palmette types repeated in rows, each one drawn differently enough that the repeat is not obvious at a glance: a broad fan-shaped bloom with a cream centre, a cupped lotus with a saffron heart, a serrated leaf that curls back on itself, and a smaller rosette with a pale eye ringed in navy. Between them sit minor leaves, buds and little four-petal flowers in the lighter beige. The main border runs a continuous ogival vine, each arch enclosing a cream palmette with a red centre, and the vine itself is drawn in olive and amber so the two colours alternate as the eye travels along it. Narrow guard stripes of small rosettes and curled leaves frame it on both sides, and the corners turn cleanly, as the close view of the corner shows. This is a rectangular piece with plain ivory fringe at both ends.

The colour

The ground is a warm beige, closer to undyed wool than to cream, and it shifts slightly from panel to panel where the pile catches the light. Against it the drawing works in three registers: a soft olive green for the vines and leaf edges, a brick rust that sharpens the palmette outlines and fills the small cartouches at the border centres, and a saffron gold that carries the larger blooms. Small touches of navy and pale rose sit inside the flower heads, visible in the macro shots but not from standing height. The overall contrast is low, which is why the rug reads as a single neutral from across a room and only resolves into pattern up close.

The making

Hand-knotted in Pakistan with a pile of natural wool, the knots fine enough to hold the thin vine lines without breaking them, as the fold in the tenth photograph shows on the reverse. The pile is clipped low and even, with the edge finish and the end fringes intact. The table records it as a new rug in perfect condition. At 6'6" x 9'7" it falls among the medium sizes, a seating area or a modest dining room, and it is one of many pieces in our hand-knotted stock built on this neutral palette.