9'2" x 12' Serapi Design Rug | Navy Blue Geometric Medallion, Ivory Spandrels | Hand-Knotted Wool, Made in India

This is a big, confident room-size piece: a hand-knotted wool Serapi with a deep navy field, a layered medallion in red and antique gold, and broad ivory corners that lift the whole drawing. It was knotted in India, where most of the world's best contemporary hand-knotted weaving is now done, on a cotton foundation with a 3/8" wool pile that still has every bit of its original body. The rug has never been used and arrives in excellent condition, with a certificate of authenticity confirming it is a genuine hand-knotted piece and not a machine-made or tufted copy. At roughly 9x12 it covers a full seating group, and it sits comfortably alongside our other 9x12 hand-knotted area rugs.

Design and Motifs

The Serapi drawing is all straight lines and stepped angles, and this weaver handled it cleanly. A large 8 sided medallion sits dead center, built up in concentric layers: a red core with a small hooked cartouche, a gold ring carrying tiny animal and bird figures, and an outer frame of serrated hooks that grip the navy ground. Above and below, long pendant palmettes in soft teal and gold reach into the field, each finished with a stepped crown. The open navy ground is not left empty, but scattered with cypress forms, serrated leaves, small rosettes and angular blossoms placed with plenty of air between them. The ivory spandrels are the best part of the composition, filled with curling vine hooks, large leaf arms and paired bird figures, and they throw the medallion forward the moment the rug is laid flat. The main border runs a brick red ground with alternating rosettes, diamond cartouches and leaf forms, framed by narrow sage guard stripes of running vine. This is classic geometric medallion rug drawing, easy to live with and easy to furnish around.

Navy, Brick Red and Ivory in Detail

The field is a genuine deep navy, close to indigo in the shaded photographs and a touch lighter where the light strikes the pile directly, with the slight tonal movement you expect from hand-spun wool. Against it, the medallion runs warm: brick red at the heart, a wide band of antique gold and soft wheat, and small touches of pale sky blue in the innermost square. The border ground is a clear brick red with a terracotta cast, cooler than the tomato red of a new machine-made piece, and it is broken up by ivory, sky blue, coral and pale gold rosettes. Sage and olive green appear twice: in the narrow guard stripes that frame the main border, and in the leaf arms scattered through the ivory corners. The ivory itself is a warm cream rather than a bleached white, which keeps the contrast rich instead of harsh. The overall read in a room is navy and red first, ivory second, with green and gold coming forward only when you stand over it.

Weaving Quality and Where It Was Made

This rug was knotted by hand in India, on a cotton warp and weft, in the workshop tradition that now produces the majority of the world's serious new hand-knotted work. Every knot was tied by a weaver at the loom, the pile was clipped to a durable 3/8", and the selvedges and fringe are part of the structure rather than sewn on afterward. Hold the back up to the light and you can read the knot rows and the color changes exactly as they appear on the face, which is how any honest Oriental rug should behave. The wool is dense and springy underfoot, dyed in the deep navy and brick tones that wear gracefully rather than fading flat, and a Serapi of this scale is a working floor covering as much as a decorative one. Vacuum it, rotate it every year or two, and it will outlast the furniture standing on it.