8' x 10' Wool and Silk Oriental Rug | Ivory Contemporary Butterfly & Floral Design | New, Never Used

Most rugs this size fight for your attention. This one does the opposite. The weaver left the 8' x 10' field almost entirely open, a quiet ivory plain, then set butterflies and single flower stems across it like pressed specimens on paper. It is a hand-knotted Oriental rug with a wool pile on a cotton foundation, and every motif is picked out in silk, so the drawing lifts off the matte ground and catches the light on its own. The rug is new, never walked on, and ships with our certificate of authenticity confirming it as a genuine hand-knotted piece.

Design and Motifs

There is no border at all, which is unusual and is the whole point of the drawing. Instead the motifs themselves form the frame: a row of 5 large butterflies and tulip stems along each end, smaller single blossoms and curling leaf sprays marching up the sides, and a loosely balanced grid of rosettes, lilies, buds and peony heads filling the interior. Two larger bouquets sit near the center, each built from a lily with long curved stamens, a full rosette and a sweep of leaves. The largest butterflies measure well over a foot across the wings, drawn with real anatomy, 2 antennae, a segmented body and layered wing panels shaded from rust at the leading edge to taupe at the tips. Outlines are worked in a darker tone and the silk areas sit slightly proud of the wool ground, giving the motifs a carved, appliqued look in raking light. It reads as botanical rather than traditional, closer to an embroidered textile than a classical medallion layout, and it belongs with contemporary hand-knotted rugs rather than anything formal.

A Warm Ivory Field With Terracotta and Gold Accents

The ground is ivory with a distinct warmth to it, closer to peach or apricot where the light falls directly and cooling to pale cream toward the ends, exactly the tone that makes a pale rug livable rather than clinical. Against it the palette stays tight and autumnal: brick and terracotta red in the tulip heads and butterfly wings, burnt orange in the lilies, soft gold and camel in the open rosettes, and a muted taupe that shades to grey green in every leaf, stem and tendril. Because the motifs are silk, the colors move as you walk around the rug, a rust wing reading deep red from one side and bright copper from the other, while the wool ground stays matte and steady. If you are shopping ivory and beige rugs and want pattern without a dark field, this is the quieter end of that search.

Weaving Quality and Chinese Workshop Origin

This is honest Chinese workshop weaving, made in China on a cotton foundation and knotted entirely by hand. The reverse, shown with the tape measure in the last photograph, tells you what you are buying: even rows, consistent knot size, no slack areas and a back firm enough to lie flat without a fight. Chinese ateliers built their reputation on exactly this kind of work, open-field designs with sculpted outlines and silk picked into a wool pile, and it takes real control to keep a field this large even in tone, since any irregularity in the wool or the beat-down would show instantly on a plain ivory ground. The pile is clipped low enough to hold the drawing crisp while leaving the wool soft underfoot, and at 8' x 10' it sits in the most useful format we sell, so it is worth comparing against the rest of our 8' x 10' Oriental rugs before you decide.