9'9" x 13'9" Serapi Oriental Rug | Rust Red Geometric Medallion | Hand-Knotted Fine Wool

This is a brand new, never used 9'9" x 13'9" Serapi rug, hand-knotted one knot at a time in fine wool on a cotton foundation and made in India, where most of the world's best contemporary hand-knotted weaving is now done. The scale is generous without being unwieldy: at close to 10x14 area rug proportions it covers a full seating group or a long dining table with chairs pulled clear of the edge. The pile is even and substantial, the handle is firm, and the fringes and selvages are clean and untouched. Anyone comparing a piece like this against older workshop weaving will find our guide to Oriental rug terminology useful. Every rug we ship leaves with a certificate of authenticity confirming that it is genuinely hand-knotted, along with its exact measurements and materials.

Design and Motifs

The drawing belongs to the Serapi branch of the Heriz design family, the boldest and most architectural of the classic geometric rug patterns. A large 8 point star medallion sits dead center, filled with black ground and edged in a fine stepped keyline, with 4 small hexagonal cartouches inside it carrying slate blue lattice panels. Ivory serrated leaves and curling palmettes radiate out from a small blue and rust rosette at the exact center. Anchor pendants extend top and bottom, each one a black lozenge holding an ivory palm. The corners are filled with deep ivory spandrels drawn in the same angular vocabulary, with scrolling vine hooks, small vases and rosettes tucked inside them. The main border runs a rhythm of ivory diamond cartouches alternating with leafy sprays and hooked vines, framed by narrow teal guard stripes with repeating leaf and rosette ticks. Every line is straight or stepped, never curved, which is exactly what this design should be.

Rust Red, Ivory and Deep Black

The field is a warm rust red with a slightly brick, terracotta cast rather than a hot crimson, and it carries subtle tonal movement across the width that keeps a large open field from reading flat. Against it the medallion and pendants sit in a deep black with a faint navy undertone, so they read almost like a shadow from a distance and resolve into detail up close. Ivory does the lifting: the corner spandrels, the border cartouches and the serrated leaves are all a soft cream rather than a bleached white. Through the field and borders run olive and moss greens in the leaf forms, muted teal and turquoise in the small flower heads and the guard stripes, plus quiet touches of mustard gold, soft rose, chestnut brown and slate blue. It is a warm, grounded palette that sits comfortably on dark wood, pale oak and stone tile alike.

Serapi Weaving Quality, Made in India

India is where the strongest contemporary hand-knotted production lives today, and this piece shows why. The back photographs show clean, regular rows with well defined knot nodes and no crowding at the edges, which is what keeps a rug this wide lying square rather than waving. The wool is the story here: a fine, springy pile with real luster in the raking light, dense enough to take heavy traffic under a dining table and resilient enough to recover from furniture legs. Serapi drawing is forgiving of scale precisely because it is angular, so a 9'9" x 13'9" panel holds its proportions instead of stretching the medallion out of shape. Selvages are firmly wrapped, the fringes are hand-tied and full, and the rug is in perfect, unused condition with no repairs, no reweaves and no wear anywhere.