8' x 9'9" Indian Traditional Rug | Ivory and Black

A hand-knotted rug from India, 8' x 9'9" and rectangular, with an ivory field carrying an all-over floral pattern and a dark border that reads almost black against it. From across a room the effect is pale gold in the middle and a heavy frame around the edge; close up, the field turns out to be crowded with small flowers, curling leaves and serrated palmettes in olive, soft rose and tan.

The design

The field follows a traditional all-over scheme rather than a central medallion: large rosettes and lotus palmettes sit on a thin vine lattice, with lanceolate leaves, split arabesques and small bud forms filling the ground between them. The repeat is drawn loosely enough that no two quarters match exactly, and the curved leaves lean in different directions from one row to the next. The main border runs a chain of round palmette cartouches linked by scrolling vine, flanked on both sides by narrow guard stripes of small flowerheads. Ivory fringe finishes both ends, visible along the near edge in the first and fourth photographs.

The colour

The ground is a warm ivory that carries a distinct yellow cast under lamplight, closer to pale straw than to white. Against it the border sits very dark, a deep olive green that passes for black at any distance, and that depth is what makes the field look as light as it does. The drawing within both areas works in a narrow range: olive and moss green, old gold, tan and a muted brick, with small points of rose and dull red at the centres of the flowerheads. The reverse, turned back in one image, shows the same olive and ivory with the pattern legible knot by knot.

The making

Hand-knotted in India, with the pattern worked in cut pile across a ribbed foundation and the fringe left as the warp ends at each end. The back shows an even, fine knot and clear outlines, which is why the smaller leaves and the thin vine stems hold their shape rather than blurring. Condition is excellent: full pile throughout, square corners and sound selvedges in the close photographs.