9'3" x 13'1" Indian Agra Rug | Wool | Ivory and Light Brown

A hand-knotted rug from India in the Agra manner, 9'3" x 13'1", with a 3/8" wool pile and a rectangular format. Seen from above, it reads as a pale rug: an ivory field carrying an all-over pattern of palmettes and curling leaves in rust, brown and soft green, held inside an ivory main border and a pair of light brown stripes.

Design

The field has no single medallion. It is built from a lattice of thin vine scrolls that swing out into large curling acanthus leaves, and at the crossings sit three kinds of flower head: a brick-red quatrefoil rosette at the centre, gold star-edged medallions above and below it on the long axis, and smaller round rosettes with pale fillings ranged in pairs across the width. Serrated leaves and small boteh-like curled forms fill the ground between them, and the whole arrangement mirrors itself along both axes. The main border runs on the same ivory ground as the field, which is what keeps the rug looking light overall: alternating palmettes and hooked leaf forms with small six-pointed star flowers set between them. Narrow light brown guard stripes on either side carry a repeating chain of small rosettes and pale cartouches.

Colour

The ground is a warm ivory, closer to wheat than to white where the light crosses the pile. Against it the drawing is worked in brick red and terracotta, with a light brown that deepens to cinnamon in the guard stripes and along the outer edge. Sage and a greyish teal outline most of the leaves, old gold fills the star medallions, and there are small touches of dusty rose and pale grey-lavender in the petals. Nothing in the palette is loud; the reds are the only strong note, and they are broken up by the outlines around them.

Making

Hand-knotted in India with a 3/8" wool pile on cotton foundation ends finished in plain fringe. The reverse shows the pattern clearly and evenly, and the rug is listed as new and in perfect condition, with full pile throughout.