6' x 8'10" Pakistani Chobi Ziegler Rug | Chocolate Brown and Ivory

This is a 6' x 8'10" Chobi rug in the Ziegler manner, hand-knotted in Pakistan. The field is a deep chocolate brown carrying an all-over pattern of ivory and tan flowerheads, and the main border is a broad band of sand and cream that lifts the whole rug at the edges. At a glance the contrast is strong from a distance and much softer close up, where the pale motifs shade into gold and grey-green.

Design

The field runs an all-over repeat rather than a medallion: large lobed palmettes and open rosettes set on a thin scrolling vine, with serrated leaves filling the spaces between. The repeat is set out in staggered rows so that a palmette on one row sits between two on the next, and the drawing loosens slightly towards the ends, which is normal in this kind of weaving. A narrow inner guard of small squares separates the field from the main border, where a meandering vine links cartouche-like rosettes and paired leaves. The outer edge is finished in the same dark brown as the field, and the ends carry a short pale fringe. The rug is rectangular and the pattern is centred squarely within it.

Colour

The ground is a chocolate brown with a visible striation through it, so the field reads darker in some rows than others as the light moves across the pile. Against it the flowers are worked in ivory and beige, warming to tan and old gold in the larger palmettes, with small touches of pale grey-green in the leaf tips. A few blossoms are outlined in a thin line of rust, which is the only saturated colour in the rug and reads as a faint red edge rather than a block of it. The border is a lighter sand than the field motifs, so the pattern steps out from dark to mid to pale as it moves from centre to edge.

Making

The rug is hand-knotted, and the close photographs of the back show even knot rows with the pattern legible from the reverse. It is new and listed in perfect condition, with full pile, straight sides and no repair or wear. The pile is cut fairly low, low enough that the outlines of the vine stay crisp, and the handle in the folded shots is supple rather than stiff.