7'11" x 10'3" Indian Ziegler Rug | Wool | Cream and Rust Red

A hand-knotted rug from India, 7'11" x 10'3", with a natural wool pile and a cream field carrying an all-over pattern of palmettes and leafy vines. The Ziegler drawing is open and large in scale, so the pale ground shows between the motifs rather than being filled edge to edge, and the single wide border in rose-brick red does most of the work of framing it. At this size it reads as one quiet field with a strong edge.

The design

The field is laid out in a repeating lattice, drawn in thin grey-green and brown vine lines that cross and loop back on themselves to enclose each group of flowers. Within those compartments sit dark green palmettes with aubergine spines, pale blue rosettes with small gold centres, split serrated leaves and scattered single blossoms in rust and rose. A curling sage leaf with scrolled ends repeats down the centre line, paired head to head, and two large arched cartouches of soft green and rose sit at the top and bottom of the field as the nearest thing to a medallion. The main border carries ivory and green palmettes alternating with leafy sprays on a rose-brick ground, held between narrow sage-green guard stripes of angular leaf forms, and the corners are turned cleanly rather than cut off mid-motif.

The colour

The ground is a warm undyed cream that shifts towards pale beige in bands where the wool takes the dye differently, visible as faint abrash across the width. Against it the border reads as a soft brick rose, closer to madder than to true red, with the pile nap turning it lighter or deeper depending on which way the rug is viewed. Olive and sage greens, a muted light blue, ochre brown and small notes of burgundy and aubergine supply the detail, and the darkest colour in the rug is the near-black purple outlining the green palmettes.

The making

Hand-knotted in India with a pile of natural wool on a cotton-coloured warp whose ends are left as plain ivory fringe. The rug is new and in perfect condition, with full even pile and straight, firmly bound sides. It is a rectangular piece, true to shape, and sits alongside the rest of our hand-knotted stock.