9'8" x 14'2" Aubusson Oriental Rug | Ivory, Blush & Sage Rosette Medallions | Flat Weave

This is a large drawing-room piece in the French Aubusson manner, woven by hand in China in soft wool over a cotton foundation, and it covers a true 9'8" x 14'2" of floor. Instead of a pile surface it carries a smooth, low tapestry face, so the drawing reads almost like painted porcelain: dozens of overlapping round plates, each ringed and filled with roses, laid across an ivory and pale gold ground. The scale suits rooms where the furniture floats rather than hugs the walls, which puts it squarely among 10x14 Oriental rugs and larger oversize area rugs. Every rug we ship leaves Freeport with a certificate of authenticity recording its size, materials, weave and origin.

Design and Motifs

The field is built from interlocking circles, roughly 40 of them across the open ground, drawn as if a service of decorated plates had been arranged in overlapping rows. Each circle has its own treatment: a rope-twist rim, a beaded ring, a scalloped wreath of leaves, or a plain ivory reserve holding a single rose spray. At the center they gather into one larger round medallion with a rosette bouquet, small perching birds and gilded scroll cartouches set into its ring, and the four quarters of the field mirror one another exactly. Ribbon garlands and swags of tiny buds link the circles where they meet, and pointed acanthus fans open at the top and bottom of the center. The main border runs a blush ground with a continuous vine of leaves, urns, ribbons and small blossoms, punctuated at each of the 4 corners by a round rosette cartouche ringed with gold dots, and the whole is closed by a plain olive outer band and a fine wine-red line.

A Pastel Palette of Ivory, Blush and Sage

The color is the reason this piece works in a modern interior. The ground moves between ivory, oatmeal and a warm pale gold, with the overlapping rings picked out in dove taupe and soft lavender-grey so the pattern reads as depth rather than contrast. Flowers are worked in dusty rose, faded raspberry and antique white, their foliage in muted sage and a cooler blue-green; touches of honey gold outline the cartouches and the rope twists. The border shifts to a light blush pink that turns almost peach where the light hits it, and the outer band is a quiet olive that frames everything without darkening the room. Accents are tiny and deliberate: a cobalt blue bird, a wine-red dot at the heart of a bud, a pale slate ring. There is no strong red and no navy anywhere, which is what lets this rug sit comfortably with limestone, pale oak, upholstered linen and gilt-wood furniture.

Aubusson Weaving and the Workshops of China

Aubusson names a French weaving town whose 18th century tapestry carpets set the pattern language every later version follows: circular medallions, rose bouquets, ribbon garlands and a calm pastel range. Chinese workshops took up that vocabulary in the 20th century and became the main source for hand-woven Aubusson floor pieces, and the standard of drawing here is high. A flat tapestry weave hides nothing, since there is no pile to soften an uneven line, so the curve of every ring and the shading inside every rose has to be resolved thread by thread; the reverse, visible where the rug is folded back, shows the same crisp drawing as the face. The result is thin, dense and heavy, it sits flat under furniture without a thick pad, and it wears as a smooth surface rather than crushing. If you are weighing this against a knotted piece, it helps to understand where the term Oriental rug begins and ends.