9'3" x 13'4" Chinese Needlepoint Rug | Aubusson Floral Medallion | Flatweave, Excellent Condition

This is a hand-woven needlepoint rug in the French Aubusson manner, stitched in wool over a cotton canvas with no pile at all, so the drawing sits flush with the surface and reads like a tapestry laid on the floor. At 9'3" x 13'4" it covers a formal room under a full seating group or a 10 seat dining table, and because there is no pile height it slips under doors and low furniture that a thick rug would fight. The back tag on this piece is marked 5734, and the weave, the wool and the stitch count all match what the photographs show. It has never been used and remains in excellent condition, and it ships with our certificate of authenticity confirming it as a genuine hand-woven needlepoint. Among large hand-woven area rugs this is the quietest kind of statement: decorative, soft in tone and completely flat underfoot.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a large oval cartouche in ivory, filled with a lattice of small 8 point stars and crowned with a bouquet of open roses, buds and leafy stems drawn with shading on every petal. The oval is clasped top and bottom by plumed acanthus leaves and white ribbon scrolls that curl out into the field. From there the design opens into swagged garlands of roses and tiny blossoms looping across the beige ground and tied at the corners, a Louis XVI vocabulary of ribbons, husks and palmette crests. Four quarter fan cartouches fill the corners and 4 more shield cartouches sit at the midpoints of the border, each carrying its own rose spray on an ivory ground. The outer frame runs in 3 bands: a dusty rose field, a brown and gold band of scrolling arabesque, and a narrow ribbon twist guard that chases around all 4 sides. Because the needlepoint stitch is flat and fine, details such as the white highlights on the scrollwork and the single blue blossoms inside the garlands stay crisp rather than blurring the way they would in a long pile.

A Palette of Camel Beige, Dusty Rose and Gold

The field is a warm camel beige that turns almost sand colored where the light catches it, and it is the reason this piece sits so easily with oak, walnut and painted furniture. Inside the border the ground shifts to a muted dusty rose rust, deeper than the field but still soft, and the main border band drops to a toasted brown with ochre gold arabesques for the only real contrast in the rug. The central oval and all 9 cartouches are woven in ivory and cream, which pulls the eye through the composition. The flowers themselves carry the color range: rose pink and antique red petals, apricot and gold centers, small pale blue and grey blue blossoms scattered through the garlands, and sage to olive green foliage that keeps the pinks from reading sweet. Cream white outlines the ribbons and scrolls. Buyers working with beige and ivory area rugs will find this one warmer and more romantic than a plain neutral, while still functioning as a light floor.

Origin and Weaving Quality: Chinese Needlepoint in the Aubusson Tradition

Needlepoint floor coverings were a French invention, worked at Aubusson and in the Savonnerie manner for 18th and 19th century interiors, and the tradition was taken up by Chinese workshops that today produce most of the world's finest hand-stitched needlepoint. This rug is made in China in that lineage: wool yarn worked stitch by stitch across a cotton canvas, the reverse showing the even grid and selvage finish visible in the detail photograph. Quality in a needlepoint is judged by stitch count and by how cleanly the curves and shading are carried, and here the roses hold 5 or 6 tones each and the acanthus scrolls keep an unbroken outline through every turn, which only happens with a tight count and a disciplined chart. The weave is flat, firm and stable, so it lies dead flat without a thick pad, takes traffic without crushing, and can equally be hung on a wall as a tapestry. If you are weighing where a piece like this fits, our guide to the difference between a Persian and an Oriental rug explains how hand-woven work from different countries is classified and priced.