7'11" x 9'9" Indian Ziegler Rug | Wool | Beige and Olive

A hand-knotted rug of 7'11" x 9'9", knotted in India with a wool pile on a plain rectangular format. Seen from above it reads as a single pale field, beige going to cream, carrying a thin tracery of vines and small flowers, with a tan border that is only a shade or two darker than the ground. The drawing is fine and the contrast deliberately low, so the pattern comes forward as you get closer rather than announcing itself across a room.

Design

The field follows the Ziegler habit of an allover vine rather than a dominant medallion: thin stems curve out from the centre in mirrored pairs, hung with serrated leaves, split palmettes, eight-petalled rosettes and small five-petal blossoms. At the middle sits a compact rosette no wider than a hand, ringed by a dotted halo, and the same idea repeats at a larger scale at the top and bottom of the field. The main border carries alternating cartouche-like palmettes and leafy rosettes, and is fenced on both sides by a narrow guard stripe of single flower heads set at even intervals. A second, thinner inner frame runs just inside the field edge, which is what gives the rug its layered look in the flat photographs.

Colour

The ground is beige with a warmer, slightly yellowed cast in the border, where the tan deepens almost to camel under raking light. Against that, the leaves and vine stems are olive green, some faded toward sage, and the outlines are drawn in a dull brown that keeps the shapes legible without hardening them. The only sharp notes are the burgundy leaf sprays and flower centres scattered through the field and border, dark enough to read as near-black in the corner shots. Blush pink and pale apricot fill some of the larger blossoms, and cream is used for the small border flower heads and the fringe.

Making

Hand-knotted in India with a wool pile, and listed as new and in perfect condition. The reverse, visible in the folded corner and the rolled shot, shows an even knot grid with the pattern coming through clearly, and the pile is cut short enough that the thin vine lines hold their shape. Both ends finish in plain cream fringe.