8'6" x 11'4" Indian Aubusson Rug | French Savonnerie Floral Medallion | Ivory & Brown, Never Used

This 8'6" x 11'4" rug takes its drawing straight out of the French Aubusson and Savonnerie tradition: a deep brown center panel filled with mirrored scrollwork, a soft cream reserve of roses at the heart of it, and a wide ivory field where loose floral sprays drift into all 4 corners. It was hand-knotted in India in 3/8 inch wool pile on a cotton foundation, sheared low so the shading in the flowers stays legible, and it has never been on a floor. At 102 by 136 inches it fits a full seating group with room to spare, which puts it squarely in the practical 8x11 hand-knotted rug range. It ships with our certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The center is a shaped cartouche panel, lobed at the top and bottom and anchored by pale palmette shells, packed edge to edge with symmetrical acanthus scrollwork that curls back on itself the way carved giltwood does. Inside it sits an oval cream reserve holding a full bouquet: open cabbage roses, small pink and cream blossoms, and broad ivy leaves hanging on fine stems, with a single deeper rose at the base. Scrolling leaf work and a beaded oval run around the reserve and mark the transition back out to the field. The ivory field is deliberately open, carrying 4 large corner sprays of peonies, buds, grapes and long serrated leaves, plus lighter garlands along each side that drift in and out of a thin ribbon vine. The outer border is restrained by comparison, a narrow striped band set with small evenly spaced gold rosettes between brown and copper guard stripes, so nothing competes with the medallion.

The Ivory and Brown Palette

Two tones carry the rug. The field is a warm ivory that reads closer to clotted cream than white, and the center panel is a dark brown with an aubergine cast that goes nearly chocolate in the deepest passages. Between them sits the interest: the scrollwork is shaded through copper, caramel and pale wheat so each curl has a highlight and a shadow, the leaves move from sage through olive to a dry buff green, and the flowers work in dusty rose, salmon and ivory with just a few tiny pale blue blossoms tucked into the corner sprays. Pale gold picks out the rosettes on the border and the shell forms at the ends of the medallion. The overall effect is intentionally muted, the soft antiqued coloring Aubusson pieces are known for rather than anything bright, so it settles easily against wood floors, cream walls and brown or green upholstery. The daylight floor photographs are the truer reading of the brown; the flat studio shot shows it a shade deeper.

Made in India: Aubusson Drawing, Hand-Knotted Weave

India is where most of the world's good contemporary hand-knotted work is made now, and this piece shows why. The original Aubusson and Savonnerie pieces were flatwoven and pile court furnishings from central France, and reproducing that drawing on a knotted loom is mostly a color problem: the shading in a rose petal or a scroll needs many close tones blended knot by knot, which is exactly what a skilled Indian workshop does well. The back and fringe photograph shows the weave straight and even, with a hand-tied cotton fringe and clean, regular knot rows across the width. The pile is dense handspun wool cut to 3/8 inch, low enough to hold the detail and heavy enough to take real traffic, on a cotton foundation that keeps the rug flat and true rather than curling at the ends. Buyers who want to understand where a piece like this sits next to Persian weaving will find it explained in our guide to Oriental rug classifications.