8'9" x 11'4" Indian Heriz Design Rug | All Over Ivory Floral Field | 1960s Wool

This 8'9" x 11'4" hand-knotted wool rug dates to the 1960s and was woven in India in the all over Heriz manner, with an ivory field of continuous flowering vine held inside a deep red multi-border. It is the kind of Oriental rug that reads formal from across the room and quiet up close, because the drawing is small in scale and the palette stays soft. At 105" x 136" it covers the same footprint most buyers shop for in 9x12 rugs, sitting comfortably under a sofa group or an eight seat table. Condition is very good after six decades of careful use, the pile is even and the ivory cotton fringe is intact at both ends, and the rug ships with a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The field is a true all over design, with no central medallion anchoring it. Instead a single small rosette sits at the exact center, flanked by two dark serrated leaves, and from there the pattern repeats outward in mirrored halves: large split palmettes, open eight petal rosettes, tulip sprays, curling acanthus scrolls and long saw-edge leaves that hook back on themselves. The composition is drawn on the diagonal, so the eye keeps moving instead of landing in one spot, and the 4 corners of the field resolve with matching bouquets. The main border carries a heavier version of the same vocabulary, big rosettes and lotus palmettes alternating along a scrolling vine, and it is fenced by narrow guard stripes of running flowerheads on olive and ivory grounds. Six border bands in total frame the field, which is what gives an 8'9" x 11'4" rug this much visual weight at the edges.

Ivory, Rust and Olive: Reading the Color

The ground is a warm ivory that leans toward cream and light wheat rather than stark white, which is why the rug sits easily with oak floors and warm plaster walls. Against it the weaver worked a rose and salmon family for the flowerheads, deepening to rust and oxblood in the palmette centers, with gold ochre used sparingly on a few open blossoms. The leaves run olive and sage green, some so dark they read nearly black at the tips, and slate blue appears in the small rosette centers and scattered buds to cool the whole thing down. The main border is a deep rust red that photographs almost burgundy under showroom light, and the olive guard stripes between the bands keep the red from closing in. Outlining throughout is charcoal, which is what holds every petal crisp at this scale.

Made in India: Weaving and Quality

India is where most of the world's good hand-knotted work is made today, and by the 1960s the northern weaving centers were already producing traditional floral designs at a standard of drawing that stands up next to anything in the market. The back of this piece tells the story: a firm cotton foundation, tightly packed rows, and knot definition clear enough that each individual rosette is legible from the reverse. The wool has the low sheen of a well washed older pile, dense underfoot and with no thin areas. A rug of this age is worth understanding in context, and our guide on how to date an Oriental rug explains the same signals a dealer checks. Six decades in, this one is still structurally sound and ready for daily use.