6' x 6' Pakistani Ziegler Rug | Wool | Burgundy and Ivory

A square rug measuring 6' x 6', hand-knotted in Pakistan with a natural wool pile. The field is a deep burgundy carrying a single large-scale floral arrangement in bronze, olive and cream, and the whole of it sits inside a broad ivory border. At a distance the rug reads as two blocks of colour, dark centre and pale frame, with the drawing only resolving as you come closer.

Design

This is a Ziegler pattern, the large-scale all-over floral style associated with the Sultanabad workshops of the late nineteenth century and now woven widely in Pakistan. The field is built symmetrically around a vertical and horizontal axis: a pair of broad serrated palmettes at top and bottom, deeply cut acanthus leaves at the four quarters, and bronze arabesques looping across the middle with small ivory buds set along them. Smaller rosettes and curling leaf tips fill the ground between. The main border runs an ivory ground with leafy palmettes joined by a thin vine, and it is framed on both sides by narrow guard stripes on a burgundy ground. The outer edge finishes in plain burgundy, and the ends are flat-woven into an ivory fringe.

Colour

The field is a burgundy with an aubergine cast, darker and cooler than a madder red, and it stays even across the whole square. Against it the leaves are drawn in bronze and warm brown, with olive and a greyed sage green on the leaf undersides and small accents of dusty rose and brick. Ivory does the outlining and the main border ground, where it warms to a soft apricot under direct light. The effect is a dark centre lit from the edges rather than a high-contrast one.

Making

Hand-knotted in Pakistan with a pile of natural wool, the back showing regular, closely set knot rows as seen in the final photograph. The pile has the slight sheen of good carpet wool where the light crosses it, visible on the rolled edge. The rug is new and listed in perfect condition, with full pile, intact selvages and clean fringes. At 6' x 6' it falls in the smaller size range, a square that suits a round table, a landing or a compact seating group.