9'6" x 14'2" Ziegler Peshawar Oriental Rug | Soltanabad All Over Design | Fine Ghazni Wool, Never Used

This 9'6" x 14'2" Ziegler Peshawar rug is a full room size piece drawn on the classical Soltanabad formula: a continuous field of palmettes and curling vine over a rustic burgundy ground, closed by a deep indigo border. The pile is fine Ghazni wool, handspun and hand-knotted, and the wool takes light the way only a good fleece does, shifting from wine to soft aubergine as you walk around it. It has never been used, the ends and sides are original and tight, and it ships with a certificate of authenticity. If you are working through 10x14 Oriental rugs for a large living space, this is the traditional end of that shelf, with the softness and hand of a rug meant to be lived on rather than admired from the doorway.

Design and Motifs

The field is a true all over design with no central medallion, so the pattern reads the same from every seat in the room. A slender gold vine runs corner to corner in a wide diamond lattice, and at each crossing sits a large sunburst palmette or a lobed cartouche flower filled with an 8 petal rosette. Between them are pairs of long serrated arabesque leaves, curled back on themselves and tipped in black and salmon, plus scattered ivory star flowers and small 4 petal blossoms in indigo and rust. The main border carries oversized palmettes and split leaves on an indigo ground, drawn large enough to hold their shape at 14 feet of length, and it is fenced on both sides by narrow salmon-gold guard stripes of scrolling vinettes. The corners resolve cleanly, which is the first thing to check on a rug this size and a fair sign of a well-followed cartoon.

The Burgundy, Indigo and Salmon Palette

The ground is a rustic burgundy that never sits flat: horizontal bands of abrash run through it, pulling the tone from brick red toward brown and, in the cooler overhead shot, toward plum. Against that, the palmettes and leaves are worked in a warm camel gold that lightens to pale wheat at the leaf tips, with soft salmon and apricot used for the inner petals and the fine outlines. The border is a smoky indigo blue, closer to midnight than royal, and its depth is what makes the gold drawing lift off the ground. Small amounts of charcoal and near black outline the flower heads, ivory cream carries the star flowers and a few leaf interiors, and touches of teal and rust appear inside the blossoms. It is a warm, low-contrast scheme overall, burgundy and blue doing the structural work while salmon and gold keep it from reading heavy.

Peshawar Weaving and the Ziegler Tradition

Peshawar in northern Pakistan is now one of the best places in the world for hand-knotted work in the old workshop styles, and the Ziegler group is its signature product: classical Soltanabad drawing, handspun Ghazni wool from the highland flocks, natural dyeing, and a finishing wash that mutes the palette into an antique register from the first day. This example is knotted on a cotton foundation at a density that keeps the vine genuinely curved and the leaf serrations crisp, which is where cheaper versions of this design fall apart. The back photograph shows an even, legible knot with no pulls or repairs, and the pile has the dry, silky handle that good Ghazni fleece gives. Sold and shipped as what the trade properly calls an Oriental rug, honestly made in Pakistan, and heavy enough at this size to lie flat without a pad fight.