8' x 10' Chinese Aubusson Needlepoint Rug | French Botanical Design | Ivory & Olive Flat Weave

This is a handmade Aubusson-style needlepoint rug worked entirely in wool on a cotton foundation, with no pile to speak of and a surface as smooth and graphic as a piece of tapestry. The whole 8' x 10' field is given over to one continuous botanical composition: palm fronds, ferns, lilies and trailing flower sprays drawn across an ivory ground with no border to interrupt them. The flat weave sits low and flush under furniture, which is part of why this 8 x 10 rug size works so well under a dining table or a pair of sofas. Condition is perfect and the rug has never been used. It ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming construction, materials, measurements and origin.

Design and Motifs

The drawing is French in feeling and tropical in subject, which is an unusual and very decorative pairing. Large palm and banana leaves rise from the 4 corners and repeat in mirrored pairs toward the center, their long blades stitched in graded greens so the light reads down each leaf. Between them the weaver filled the ground with feathery fern sprays, curling acanthus leaves, open lilies with 5 petals, small tulip-shaped buds and thin flowering branches that arch and cross like garden trellis work. The composition is symmetrical along the long axis but never mechanical, since the flower heads and leaf tips are individually shaded. There is no border at all: the botanicals simply run to the edge and are stopped by a plain bound selvage, which gives the rug the look of a cut panel of 18th century French tapestry rather than a framed carpet layout.

Ivory Ground with Olive Green and Warm Autumn Accents

The ground is a warm ivory that shifts toward soft parchment and pale honey depending on the light, and because the weave is flat the color reads evenly across the full width with no shading bands. Over it the foliage is worked in a full range of olive green, from a deep moss in the shadowed leaf bases up through sage, celadon and a dry yellow green at the tips. The flowers supply the warmth: cream and buttermilk lily heads, apricot and soft coral buds, and a scattering of rust and terracotta petals that keep the overall effect autumnal rather than cold. Fine brown and tobacco outlines separate the leaves from the ground and hold the drawing crisp. Buyers working with ivory and beige rugs will find this one easy to place, since the palette stays close to natural linen, aged wood and stone.

Origin and Weaving Quality

Aubusson began as a French weaving town whose flat tapestry carpets furnished 18th and 19th century salons, and the technique was later taken up by Chinese workshops that today produce most of the world's finest needlepoint and Aubusson-style floor pieces. This rug is honestly made in China in that tradition, worked stitch by stitch in wool over a cotton grid rather than knotted with a pile, which is what gives the surface its tight, even, canvas-like face. The back photograph shows exactly that structure: a clean, regular stitch field and a hand-bound edge with no glue and no machine backing. Quality here is judged by stitch count, shading and how well the curved leaf lines hold, and on all 3 counts this piece is well above the usual decorative grade. It is a good example of how broad the Oriental rug category really is, and it belongs in a room where the drawing can be seen rather than buried under furniture.