8' x 11'6" Indian Chobi Rug | Wool | Wine Red and Wheat Brown

A 8' x 11'6" rectangular rug hand-knotted in India in wool, with a 3/8" pile. The field is a deep wine red carrying an all-over floral pattern in pale gold, cream and soft green, and the whole of it is held inside a wide wheat brown border. At a distance the field reads as a single dark colour with light drawing across it; close up the drawing resolves into palmettes, rosettes and thin curling vines.

The design

The Chobi pattern here runs edge to edge with no medallion. Large fan-shaped palmettes and rounded rosettes sit on a lattice of thin stems, mirrored across the length and width of the field so that each motif has a twin facing it. Smaller blossoms and serrated leaves fill the ground between them. The main border carries a repeating row of flowering shrubs, each crowned with a spiky red halo, linked by a leafy meander, and is fenced on both sides by narrow guard bands of small flowerheads on gold. Cotton fringe finishes both ends, with a thin red outer stripe at the edge of the pile.

The colour

The field is wine red, dark enough to look almost brown-purple in the corners of the photographs and clearer red where the light crosses the pile. Against it the ornament is worked in wheat gold, cream and a muted celadon green, with pinpricks of red inside the flower centres. The border is a quieter wheat brown, close to stone in places, which separates the dark field from the red outer stripe and keeps the contrast from going hard.

The making

Hand-knotted in India, with a pile of wool at 3/8" and a cotton foundation visible at the fringed ends. The back photograph shows the knotting clearly, the border pattern legible from the reverse and the rows even across the width. Condition is new.