8' x 10' Chinese Oriental Rug | Red Field with Ivory Radiating Medallion | Brand New

This is a formal, classically drawn Oriental rug in the most useful room size there is, hand-knotted in China with a lustrous wool pile on a cotton foundation and never used. The deep red field carries a dense all-over floral lattice that opens into a large ivory medallion with a 16 point starburst at its heart, and the wool has the high sheen you normally only see in finely spun yarn, which is why the ivory reads almost metallic under lamplight. Every corner is square, the selvedges are tight and the pile is full, as you would expect from a piece that has never been on a floor. It belongs in the broad family of 8x10 area rugs that sit under a sofa group with all four legs on, and like every rug we import it ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming it is genuinely hand-knotted.

Design and Motifs

The drawing follows the classical medallion and corner formula. At the center sits a broad round medallion built in concentric rings: a 16 point star at the core, then a band of small rosettes, then a ring of curved lobed cartouches, then an outer halo of palmettes and serrated leaves that dissolves into the field. Around it the red ground is filled edge to edge with a curving vine system carrying palmettes, 8 petal rosettes, split leaves and small blossoms, all drawn with the curved line that only a fine knot count allows. Large ivory spandrels close the 4 corners with matching floral sprays, giving the field its oval silhouette. The border system runs 5 bands deep: a wide ivory main border of alternating palmettes and rosettes joined by a running vine, flanked by narrow floral guard stripes on each side, so the eye is walked from the outer edge into the medallion in clean stages.

Color: Deep Red, Ivory and Quiet Green

The field is a true deep red, warm rather than orange, and it darkens or brightens depending on the angle you view the pile from, which is why the same field looks brick in one photo and closer to crimson in another. Against it the ivory is doing most of the work: the medallion, the spandrels and the main border are all a soft cream that picks up a golden cast where the light hits the pile, with pale champagne and honey tones shading the larger floral heads. Inside the flowers you find the secondary palette, small touches of sage and pine green in the leaves and vine tips, plus caramel, dark brown and a deep navy used as outlining to keep every motif crisp against the red. Green also appears as a thin stripe in the outer guard border, framing the whole rug. The overall effect in a room is red and ivory first, with the greens and browns reading only up close.

Origin and Weaving Quality

This piece comes from our Zhenping Collection, woven in China in the classical Oriental tradition rather than in any Chinese pictorial or Art Deco style. Zhenping is a county with a long association with hand-knotted rug production, and the workshops there weave to the old medallion and vine layouts with a fine, even knot and a clipped, low pile that keeps the small floral heads legible. The back tells the story honestly: as shown in the last photograph, the knots are small and regular, the design reads clearly from the reverse, and the cotton warps run straight with no pulling at the sides. Each row is beaten down evenly, which is what gives the rug its flat, tight handle and its ability to take furniture without crushing. The wool is well spun and full of natural luster, so the pile reflects light in the way that makes this style of rug look richer the longer it sits in a room.