7'8" x 10' Agra Oriental Rug | Black Field All Over Floral | Hand-Knotted Wool in Excellent Condition

A black ground is the hardest field color to pull off in a hand-knotted Oriental rug, because every flower drawn on top of it has to carry its own light. This 7'8" x 10' Agra from India does exactly that: a jet black field covered edge to edge in gold, olive and sage blossoms, framed by a deep brick red border of large palmettes. The pile is 3/8" wool on a cotton foundation, the weave is firm and even, and the condition is excellent with full pile and clean ivory fringe at both ends, as shown in the back and fringe photographs. It falls squarely into the most practical of room sizes, so it works for buyers shopping 8x10 Oriental rugs who want something formal without the predictability of a red medallion piece. Every rug we ship leaves with a certificate of authenticity confirming it is hand-knotted, along with its origin, materials and measurements.

Design and Motifs

There is no medallion here. The field is a true all over floral design, built from a slow scrolling vine that carries fan shaped palmettes, serrated sunburst rosettes, 8 petal medallion flowers and small buds, all mirrored on the long center axis so the drawing repeats in pairs up the length of the rug. Large split leaf arabesques curl inward at regular intervals and give the composition its rhythm, while a scattering of tiny four petal flowers and leaf sprigs fills the ground between the larger blooms so no stretch of black reads as empty. The main border takes the same vocabulary and enlarges it: broad palmettes and rosettes set upright on red, turned at the 4 corners so the pattern resolves cleanly rather than running off the edge. Two narrow guard stripes do the quiet work, an inner olive gold band of linked S-scrolls and little paisley forms, and an outer pale sage band of small squares and leaf tips, with a plain black selvage line closing the whole thing in.

The Color Palette

The field is a dense, matte black that photographs almost blue-black in the close-up shots, and it is the backdrop that makes the rest of the palette glow. The flowers run through a soft golden range: antique gold, dry olive, chartreuse, celadon and a dusty sage green, with the larger palmettes shaded from pale straw at the tips into deeper bronze at the heart. Copper and rust accents appear in the flower centers and in the small paisley forms of the guard stripe, giving just enough warmth to tie the field to the border. That border is a muted brick red, more terracotta than crimson, which keeps the contrast rich without turning loud, and its blossoms repeat the same gold, sage and blue-green shading seen in the field. The outer guard reads as a pale silvery sage, the fringe is natural ivory, and the overall effect is a dark, handsome, low-contrast harmony that suits buyers looking at black ground rugs for a formal room.

Origin and Weaving Quality

This rug was made in India, in the Agra design tradition that traces back to the Mughal court workshops established in that city in the 16th and 17th centuries, where classical floral drawing and large scale palmette borders were first worked out. India is where most of the world's best contemporary hand-knotted weaving is now done, and this piece shows why: the knotting is tight and regular, the horizontal rows run straight across the full 92" width, the pattern lines stay crisp where vine crosses vine, and the wool has been clipped low at 3/8" so the fine detail in the leaves and flower centers is not lost in the pile. The reverse, visible in the final photograph, shows an even, well packed back on a cotton foundation with no bowing or puckering, and the selvages and fringe are intact and original. It is a traditional rug made to a high standard, finished in excellent condition, and ready to be used rather than restored.