8' x 10' Flat Weave Aubusson Rug | French Country Ivory and Gold Floral | Brand New

This is a flat woven Aubusson in the French Country manner, handmade in wool with no pile at all, so the drawing sits flush with the surface the way it does on an antique tapestry rather than standing up in a cut nap. The field is a warm ivory that deepens to butter gold under room light, strewn with small bouquets, and the whole thing is framed by a deep gold border carrying acanthus cartouches at the 4 corners. Because there is no pile to crush, it takes furniture well and stays slim under doors, which is why these flat weaves suit dining rooms and layered period interiors. It has never been used and arrives with a certificate of authenticity confirming it is genuinely handwoven. Buyers shopping 8x10 Oriental rugs rarely find this look in a true flat weave.

Design and Motifs

There is no medallion. Instead the field carries an allover scatter of naturalistic sprays, drawn the way a botanical plate is drawn rather than stylised into geometry: single tulips with curling leaves, nodding blue bellflowers on arched stems, open daisies, small berry red rosettes with dark centers, purple asters, and little seed pod clusters. Behind them runs a second, quieter layer of self-tone leaves and five petal blossoms woven a shade lighter than the ground, which gives the field depth without adding another color. A narrow ivory vine band separates field from border, and the wide gold border carries a continuous scrolling acanthus vine with tulips and carnations, interrupted at the midpoint of each side and at each corner by a shell shaped cartouche enclosing a white daisy and a red bud. The outer edge finishes with a slim pale guard stripe and a green selvage, visible where the corner is folded back.

Ivory, Gold, Green and Berry

The palette is deliberately soft and tonal. The field sits between ivory and pale butter, reading creamier in flat studio light and warmer, more honeyed, on a floor; the border steps up two values into a saturated antique gold with a faint olive cast where the scrollwork shades. Against those two golds the flowers stay muted: sage and olive green leaves, a dusty blue on the bellflowers, lilac and plum on the asters and tulip buds, apricot and soft coral on the lilies, and only small controlled hits of berry red and deep burgundy at the rosette centers to keep the field from going flat. Chalk white blossoms and the self-tone tracery supply the highlights. Nothing here fights a wall color, which makes it an easy fit alongside other ivory and beige area rugs, warm wood tones and cream upholstery.

Origin and Weaving Quality

The Aubusson tradition comes from central France, where workshops wove flat tapestry floor coverings for chateaux and salons from the 17th century onward. This piece is a faithful modern interpretation of that style, made in China, where the flat tapestry weave has been produced to a high standard for decades. The work is entirely by hand on the loom, with the wool wefts packed tightly over a cotton foundation so the curved stems and shaded petals hold their line, and the shading in the acanthus scrolls is built from several closely related yarns rather than one flat color. Turn a corner over and you see the construction honestly: thin, pliable, firm, reversible in handle, with clean color definition front and back. As a contemporary Oriental rug it belongs with the better modern and contemporary handmade rugs rather than with machine made reproductions, and it is in perfect, unused condition.