6' x 9'3" Indian Chobi Rug | Wool | Green and Ivory

A 6' x 9'3" rectangular carpet knotted by hand in India, with a wool pile clipped to 3/8 of an inch. The field is an olive green carrying an all-over pattern of palmettes and scrolling vines, framed by a wide ivory border. Seen from across a room it reads as two tones, green inside and cream outside; up close the flowers carry gold, apricot, soft red and charcoal.

Design

There is no medallion. The field is built from a lattice of thin pale vines that loop and cross the full length of the rug, hanging large fan-shaped palmettes at the centre of each curve and smaller rosettes, carnations and serrated leaves in the spaces between. The Chobi drawing is loose rather than rigid, so the repeats shift slightly from one row to the next, and the close photographs show single pale blossoms sitting off-axis against the vine. The main border alternates a dark-outlined palmette with an eight-petal rosette along a meandering stem, and is held between narrow guard stripes of small flowerheads. A slim olive band runs outside the guards to the selvedge, and the ends finish in a plain ivory fringe.

Colour

The field is a mid olive green with a brown undertone, lighter where the pile leans towards the light and deeper in the fold, as the rolled corner photograph shows. Against it the vines are drawn in a pale celadon barely a shade off the ground, so the lattice reads as texture before it reads as line. The ivory border is closer to champagne than to white and warms further towards the corners. Inside both field and border the accents are wheat, honey gold, apricot and a dull madder red, with charcoal to near-black outlining the leaves and palmette hearts, and occasional flower centres in a greyed lilac.

Making

Hand-knotted, with a wool pile of 3/8 of an inch on a foundation the back photograph shows as an even, close weave that carries the drawing clearly through to the reverse. The rug comes from India and follows the Chobi manner rather than any single town's pattern book. It is listed as new and in perfect condition, the pile unworn and the fringes and selvedges intact.