8' x 10' Chinese Aubusson Rug | Flat Weave | Ivory and Black

A rectangular carpet of 8' x 10', woven flat with no pile, so the drawing sits right on the surface of the cloth. At a glance it reads as two things at once: a pale, open centre carrying loose sprays of flowers, and a heavy dark frame of curling leafwork that runs unbroken around all four sides. The centre of the field is held by an oval panel on a black ground.

Design

The Aubusson drawing is symmetrical on both axes. At the middle, an upright oval on black carries a round rosette medallion inside a plaited ribbon, flanked by acanthus leaves that curl outward and by small lyres set above and below it. The pale field around it is shaped into a shield with concave corners, filled with thin scrolling stems, tied bouquets and single roses laid on the ground rather than growing from it. Outside that shield the black border takes over: at each corner a large rolled acanthus scroll wraps a full-blown flower, and at the centre of each side the leafwork meets in a paired volute. The outer guard band is a pale scrolling wave of leaves over a mushroom ground, punctuated by small triangles, and the whole is stopped by a plain black outer edge.

Colour

The field is a warm ivory, close to unbleached linen where the weave catches the light, and it is the only quiet area in the design. Against it the black of the medallion and border is flat and dense, which makes the leafwork read like pale drawing on a dark page. The scrolls are worked in rose, from a deep dusty red at the tip of a leaf through salmon to a chalky blush at the curl. Olive and sage green appear in the smaller leaves and stems, with gold and a soft buff carrying the shading between them. A few blooms are picked out in pale blue-grey, which cools the pink where the two sit side by side.

Making

The rug was woven in China in the Aubusson manner, as a flat weave rather than a knotted pile, the colours built up in blocks of weft that leave fine ridges along the outlines of the leaves. The reverse, shown in the last photograph, carries the loose yarn ends left where one colour meets the next. It is new and in perfect condition.