8'10" x 12'7" Mamlook Oriental Rug | Star Medallion & Rosette Border | Fine Wool, Brand New

This 8'10" x 12'7" hand-knotted piece is a careful revival of the Mamluk weaving tradition of 15th and 16th century Cairo, a style built on compass geometry rather than flowing vines. Everything radiates from a single octagon: concentric squares, stepped diamonds, satellite octagons and 8 point stars, all drawn with the ruler-straight precision that this design demands and punishes when it is missing. The wool pile is dense and springy, the surface has a clean sheen under light, and the rug has never been on a floor. It is sold in perfect condition with a certificate of authenticity confirming it as a genuine hand-knotted Oriental rug, not a machine-made reproduction of one.

Design and Motifs

The center holds an ivory octagon filled with small rosettes and 8 point stars around a spoked wheel, framed by a navy band of chevron rays and set into a red stepped diamond. Around that sits a large sky blue square panel scattered with tiny leaf sprigs, ringed by 16 ivory octagons and cartouches, each carrying its own star or rosette. The red field outside the medallion is covered edge to edge in a fine all over lattice of miniature blossoms, with 4 large navy 8 point stars anchoring the corners of the open ground. At each end runs a wide navy panel of cypress forms and cross-medallions, a hallmark of the Mamluk drawing. The main border is an ivory ground of alternating navy medallions and red-and-green rosettes, flanked by a sky blue guard band of hooked vines and a slim olive green inner stripe. This is a strictly geometric rug, with no curved line anywhere in the composition.

Color: Deep Red, Sky Blue, Ivory and Olive Green

The field is a deep brick red that shifts toward cherry where the light catches the pile, and because the lattice is knotted in ivory, olive and small navy dots, it reads as a warm textured plum-red from standing height rather than a flat block of color. The medallion panel is a clear mid sky blue, noticeably lighter and cooler than the navy used in the end panels, the border medallions and the chevron ring, so the eye separates the 3 blues instantly. Ivory does the structural work: it outlines the octagons, carries the main border ground and lights up the small stars scattered across the red. Olive and grass green appear as thin outlines, rosette centers and the narrow inner stripe, adding the acidic note that keeps red and blue from going heavy. Soft gold and apricot show in the medallion ground and a few corner triangles. Against a wood floor the red dominates; against pale stone or a light rug pad, the blue medallion is what people see first.

Origin and Weaving Quality

Pakistan is one of the few places still producing hand-knotted goods at this level of finish, and the trade grades work like this at the top of the scale, often catalogued as Super Kazak quality. The close-up of the folded corner shows what that means in practice: tight even rows, clean color breaks with no bleed, no lazy lines, and a heavy wool pile that stands up rather than lying flat. The wool is lustrous and takes dye deeply, which is why the reds keep their depth across nearly 13 feet without patchiness. Sides are firmly overcast in red and the ends are finished with plain cotton fringe. At 8'10" x 12'7" it is a true room-size piece, sized for a sofa group with all legs on, and it sits comfortably within our selection of large hand-knotted rugs.