7'10" x 9'9" Chinese Oriental Rug | Black Aubusson Floral Design | Fine Wool Pile, Excellent Condition

This 7'10" x 9'9" piece is a hand-knotted Chinese room size rug worked in the Aubusson manner, with a jet black ground carrying a garden of gold, peach and sage flowers from fringe to fringe. It is a true Oriental rug, knotted by hand on a cotton foundation with a 3/8" wool pile, not a machine-made or tufted copy, and the back photograph with the ruler laid across it shows the even, tight rows behind the design. The scale is the most useful one in the house, which is why buyers searching 8x10 rugs keep landing on this one. It is in excellent condition with full even pile and clean ivory fringes, and it ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming that it is hand-knotted.

Design and Motifs

The layout is unusual and worth studying. Instead of a central medallion, the weaver set a rectangular inner panel inside the field, outlined by a slim ivory and gold flower vine, so the rug reads as a framed picture within a frame. Inside that panel a loose bouquet of peonies, tulips, lilies and small five petal blossoms drifts across the black ground on curling leafy stems. Outside the panel the drawing turns grander: large carved acanthus scrolls anchor all 4 corners, 2 shaped cartouches sit at the centers of the long sides, each one holding a footed basket of flowers, and ribbon-tied garlands fill the top and bottom. The guard stripes are narrow, a running leaf and rosette band on a gold field, which keeps the eye on the flowers rather than on the border architecture. Every bloom is shaded across 3 or 4 tones, giving the painterly, almost tapestry-like depth this style is known for.

A Deep Black Ground With Gold, Peach and Sage

The ground is a true, saturated black rather than a very dark navy or brown, and because wool takes black with a slight sheen the field shifts from ink to charcoal as you walk around it. Against that ground the palette is warm and soft: butter gold and antique straw carry most of the large blossoms, with pale ivory and cream on the scrollwork and cartouches so the carved elements look almost sculpted in light. Peach and apricot run through the tulips and rose heads, and a muted sage to olive green fills the leaves and stems, cooling the gold so nothing turns brassy. Small touches of terracotta and dusty rose appear in the bud tips and in the flower baskets. The ivory fringes and the thin ivory outlining vine around the inner panel give the whole composition a clean edge. In a room this reads as a dramatic dark floor covering that still feels warm, and it sits easily with cream walls, dark woods, gilt frames and both antique and contemporary furniture.

Chinese Weaving and the Quality of This Piece

China has produced hand-knotted rugs for centuries, and the finest modern workshops built their reputation on exactly this kind of work: European Aubusson and Savonnerie floral drawing translated into a knotted pile rug, woven with long staple wool and clipped low so the detail stays crisp. That low 3/8" pile is what makes the shading in the petals readable; a shaggier pile would blur it. The cotton warps and wefts visible along the end give the rug a flat, stable handle that lies down without buckling, and the selvages are tightly overcast. Workshop rugs of this type sit comfortably beside other fine hand-knotted Oriental rugs in both drawing and finish, and because the piece has never been used the pile stands full and the colors have not yet begun the slow mellowing that use brings.