6' x 9' Chinese Aubusson Rug | Sage Green, Ivory and Pink

A 6' x 9' rectangular rug made in China in the Aubusson manner, worked in the fine gridded stitch that the close photographs show clearly at the corners and along the inner border. The surface sits flat and low, with no raised pile, and at a glance the rug reads as a pale sand field crossed by broad scrolling leafwork, with a single flowered medallion at the centre and a bouquet of roses in each corner.

The design

The centre holds a quatrefoil cartouche, drawn with a stepped outline and a beaded inner line, filled with a bouquet of open roses, small five-petalled blossoms and olive foliage on a lighter ground. Around it the field is given over to large acanthus scrolls that curl outward toward the corners, drawn tonally in cream and pale gold so they show as shape rather than colour. Four shield-shaped corner panels carry the heaviest flowers in the rug, full pink roses with cupped petals and dark leaves, and a smaller rose spray sits at the centre of each end, hung from a swag of leaves. Between field and outer band runs a narrow guard of leafy vine with scattered pink and white blossoms, and the outermost band is plain camel, unornamented.

The colour

The ground is ivory going to sand and pale gold where the leafwork is shaded, so most of the field is a single family of close tones. Against it the foliage is a dusty sage green, cool enough to keep the warm ground from turning yellow, and the roses are a clear rose pink with cream and apricot in the half-open buds. A warm camel runs around the outer edge and reappears in the scroll outlines and in the brackets flanking the medallion, which ties the border to the field. Nothing in the palette is saturated; the whole rug works within a narrow range, with the pink flowers carrying the only strong note.

The making

The spec table records the rug as hand-knotted with a flat weave finish, and the reverse, shown with the maker's tag in the last photograph, is dense and evenly worked across the whole width. The design follows the French Aubusson tradition of flat-surfaced floral carpets, but the rug itself was made in China, which is where this type of needlepoint-style weaving is produced in quantity today. It is listed as new and in perfect condition.