7' x 11' Turkmen Bokhara Rug | Burgundy Yomut Gul Field | 1980s Caucasus Wool on Wool

This 7' x 11' rug is a classic Turkmen Bokhara, hand-knotted in the Caucasus in the 1980's with a wool pile on a wool foundation. It is the kind of Oriental rug that tribal buyers look for first: a dark wine field filled edge to edge with rows of octagonal guls, no central medallion, and wide patterned end panels that read almost like a flatwoven band. The handle is firm and the pile is short and even, with a tight back and straight, well-kept selvedges visible in the fold shots. Condition is excellent, with full pile and sound original fringe. Every rug we ship carries a certificate of authenticity confirming it is hand-knotted and describing its origin, materials and size.

Design and Motifs

The field runs an all-over repeat of quartered Yomut style guls, each one drawn with a red outline and filled with small ivory hooks, teal blocks and rust squares. Between the gul rows sit stepped diamond rosettes, some outlined in slate blue and some in rust, with tiny 4 point stars scattered through the open ground. At both ends the drawing changes character completely: 3 broad bands of large ivory latch hook devices, a meander row of ivory hooks on a dark ground, and several narrow guard stripes of slate blue and teal geometry. The side borders carry a slimmer version of the same hooked lattice, so the pattern closes cleanly at all 4 corners. It is disciplined, repetitive, strictly geometric drawing, with the small irregularities of a weaving done from memory rather than from a full cartoon.

The Burgundy, Slate Blue and Rust Palette

The ground is a deep burgundy that leans aubergine, dark enough to photograph as near black in low light and to show as a warm plum brown where the light rakes across the pile. Against that field, the gul interiors bring rust, brick red and a bottle green that reads nearly black until you kneel next to it, while the ivory hooks and animal shaped devices give the only bright notes in the field. The diamond rosettes between the guls alternate rust centers with soft slate blue outlines, and that cool grey blue is the color that keeps the rug from going flat, repeated again through the guard stripes and the wide end panels. Scattered orange accents warm the border, and black outlining sharpens every motif. On a wood floor, as in the room photo, the brown and burgundy tones sit quietly against cream upholstery and leather.

Turkmen Weaving in the Caucasus

The gul design belongs to the Turkmen weaving groups, and it travelled with them across the Caucasus and the Caspian region, where workshops and village looms continued the pattern through the 20th century. This piece was woven there in the 1980's, wool on wool, which is the traditional construction for tribal rugs of this type and the reason they wear so well: hand-spun wool warps take tension without stretching, and the dense, short pile resists crushing under furniture. The weave is even, the rows of knots are straight, and the back shows clear, well-defined nodes with no uneven packing. At 7 feet by 11 feet it falls just above the common 7x10 Oriental rugs footprint, which makes it a practical choice under a sofa and coffee table while leaving a margin of floor on all sides.