8'11" x 17'8" Agra Oriental Rug | Soltanabad All Over Floral | Beige & Sage Green | Made in India

Very few hand-knotted rugs are woven at 17'8" long, and fewer still hold a drawing this steady from one end to the other. This 8'11" x 17'8" Agra is a gallery-length piece in the Soltanabad manner: a warm golden beige field carrying an all over repeat of palmettes, rosettes and leafy vine, framed by a soft sage green border. The pile is 100% wool on a cotton foundation, cut at a medium height that still shows the outline of every leaf tip, and the wool takes the light differently depending on where you stand, which is why the field reads camel in the low-angle photographs and lighter beige from directly overhead. It is brand new and never used, and it ships with our certificate of authenticity confirming it is 100% hand-knotted. If you are furnishing a long room, this sits squarely in the oversize rugs range where the floor plan, not the decor, makes the decision.

Design and Motifs

The field runs as a true all over floral design with no central medallion dominating the composition. Along the vertical axis sit 3 large rust and camel palmette rosettes, each one built from layered petals around a small black and ivory core, with curling acanthus and serrated saz leaves sweeping out to either side. Between them, paired lotus palmettes in blue-grey and black open like fans, joined by a thin scrolling vine that links every element into one continuous system. Smaller 8 petal rosettes, tulip heads and split leaves fill the ground so there is no dead space anywhere in the drawing. The main border carries a procession of pendant palmettes and cloud-like arabesque scrolls, outlined in black and filled with rust and apricot, while the inner and outer guard stripes run a reciprocal trefoil and rosette chain in salmon and olive. The 4 corners resolve cleanly, which on a rug of this length is a real test of the cartoon and the weaver.

A Beige, Sage Green and Rust Color Story

The ground is a golden beige with a honey cast, closer to light camel in the raking-light photographs and closer to soft sand in the flat overhead view. Against it, the motifs are drawn in rust and burnt orange, warm terracotta, pale apricot and a muted olive green, with slate blue-grey used inside the lotus heads and a small amount of near black reserved for outlines and the centers of the palmettes. That black is used sparingly and it is what keeps the whole palette from going flat. The main border is a quiet sage green, cooler and lighter than the field, so it reads as a frame rather than a competing band, and the salmon guard stripes bridge the two tones. The reverse, visible in the fold shots, shows the same colors in clean untinted form with an ivory cotton warp and fringe. This is a warm neutral rug: it will sit comfortably on oak, walnut and stone floors and against cream, olive, brown and brass in a room.

Made in India: Agra Weaving and the Soltanabad Drawing

Agra has been a serious weaving center since the Mughal court workshops, and the region around it is today where most of the world's best contemporary hand-knotted work is made. We say that with confidence: the wool sorting, the vegetal-toned dye work and the discipline required to hold a repeat straight over 17'8" are all at a level that justifies the price of any fine Oriental rug. The Soltanabad layout used here, a large-scale palmette and vine repeat with generous open ground, is a classical village-workshop drawing that Agra ateliers weave particularly well because it rewards good wool over sheer knot count. The back shows tidy, even rows on a cotton foundation, the selvedges are firmly overcast and the fringe is a continuation of the warp rather than an applied finish. Made in India, hand-knotted, and in perfect unused condition.