8'10" x 11'10" Chobi Oriental Rug | Vegetable Dyed Off White Field | Rust Border | Excellent Condition

This 8'10" x 11'10" Chobi is the kind of hand-knotted Oriental rug that works in almost any room because it never fights the furniture. The field reads as a warm off white, the main border is a soft rust, and the drawing is handled in gold, brown, sage and brick red. The wool is spun from long staple fleece and the vegetable dyed colors already carry that slightly faded, sun washed quality collectors look for. In hand the pile is medium and even, the selvedges are tight, and the ivory fringe is clean with no reduction. Woven on a cotton foundation with a 100% wool pile and finished in excellent, never used condition, it covers a true room size footprint and sits comfortably in the 9x12 class. Every rug ships with a certificate of authenticity from Rugs.net confirming that it is genuinely hand-knotted.

Design and Motifs

The layout is a classic all over floral design with no central medallion, so the pattern repeats evenly end to end and the rug can be rotated or re-oriented without losing balance. Large serrated palmettes anchor the field in staggered rows, each one drawn with deep saw tooth edges and a small flowering rosette at the heart. They are joined by a thin gold vine that loops from blossom to blossom, hung with curled leaves, small 8 pointed stars, tiny carnations and the upright pomegranate and vase forms you can see along the lower end of the field. The main rust border carries alternating leaf and palmette heads in ivory, gold and wine, separated by a narrow floral guard stripe, and the pattern is finished with a delicate flowering vine on the outer edge. The corners resolve cleanly, which on an all over drawing takes planning rather than luck.

A Palette of Off White, Rust and Soft Sage

The ground is off white with a faint sandy cast, closer to parchment than to bright ivory, and it carries subtle abrash bands where the dye lots shifted during weaving. Against that field the palmettes alternate between a cocoa brown, a muted brick red and a dusty rose, each outlined in camel or gold so the shapes stay crisp without becoming loud. Small accents of pale sage green and a soft slate blue grey sit in the leaves and arrow forms, cooling the whole palette down. The main border is a terracotta rust that reads warmer under lamplight and more coral in daylight, framed by olive and oatmeal guard stripes that pick up the greens from the field. There is no black, no harsh white and no synthetic brightness anywhere in the piece, which is the signature of a vegetable dyed weave and the reason this coloring works equally well over pale oak floors and darker walnut.

Woven in India: Chobi Weaving and Quality

India is where most of the world's good contemporary hand-knotted weaving is now done, and Chobi production is the clearest proof of it. The name describes the method rather than a town: the yarn is dyed with plant derived colorants, then the finished rug is washed to open up the wool and settle the tones. This example was woven knot by knot on an upright loom over a cotton warp and weft, and the reverse shown in the detail photograph is tidy and regular, with the pattern reading as clearly from the back as from the pile side. The wool was chosen for luster rather than bulk, so the surface has a quiet sheen and takes foot traffic well in a dining room or a main living space. Among 9x12 Oriental rugs this is a practical, hard wearing piece with enough drawing to hold your attention for years.