9'9" x 14' Kazak Oriental Rug | Triple Stepped Medallion Geometric Design | Fine Silky Wool, Brand New

This is a brand new Kazak in a room-filling 9'9" x 14', hand-knotted in Afghanistan in fine soft wool that has a genuine silky handle rather than the dry, coarse feel most people expect from a village-style weave. Three large stepped diamond medallions march up the centre of a deep red field, drawn with the confident straight lines and latch hooks of the old Caucasian repertoire, and the whole composition is held by a broad ivory border of red rosettes and blue star diamonds. It is a heavy, thick-piled piece built to take traffic in a living room or a long dining room, and at this size it sits comfortably among the larger 10 x 14 Oriental rugs we carry. It has never been used, and every rug we sell ships with our certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The field carries 3 stepped diamond medallions on the long axis, the outer 2 in blue and the centre one in ivory, each one edged with rows of latch hooks and small comb bars and centred on an 8 point star in gold and ivory. Between and beside them sit 6 octagonal rosette panels, again built on 8 point stars in gold with pale blue and ivory grounds, so the drawing reads as a balanced all over lattice rather than a single medallion layout. The open red ground is filled with small teal cypress and arrow sprigs, 8 point starlets, quatrefoils and a row of tiny geometric bird and animal figures along the lower field, the kind of small tribal fillers that give a rug personality when you sit close to it. The main ivory border alternates red 8 petal rosettes with blue star diamonds on stick-like stems, framed by gold reciprocal bands and narrow blue rosette guard stripes, and the corners resolve cleanly with proper stepped brackets. Buyers who like this kind of straight-line drawing tend to compare it against our other geometric rugs.

Color: Deep Red, Blue, Green and Ivory

The field is a deep red that shifts gently between a warm brick tone and a cooler crimson as the light moves across the pile, a natural abrash that comes from hand-spun yarn dyed in small batches and is one of the marks of an honest hand-knotted weave. Against it the medallions run in 2 distinct blues, a strong ink blue in the outer diamonds and a lighter sky blue in the rosette panels, with the border stars dropping into a dark navy. Ivory does the structural work: it lines the medallion outlines, fills the central diamond and forms the wide main border, which keeps such a saturated red from feeling heavy. Gold and soft apricot pick out the 8 point stars and the reciprocal bands, and a muted teal green runs through the cypress sprigs and some of the small border leaves, cooling the red where the field is most open. The overall reading is red and ivory with blue as the second voice, the traditional Kazak palette rather than a washed or overdyed modern one.

Origin and Weaving Quality

Kazak is a design name before it is a place name. The pattern language belongs to the old Caucasian weaving tradition, and today the finest examples are knotted in Afghanistan, where weavers work this vocabulary on upright looms in family workshops using highland wool. This one is a Super Kazak grade: the knotting is even and tight across all 14 feet, the back is clear and regular, the selvages are wrapped in red and the wool takes a distinct sheen where the pile is cut, which is why the weight and drape feel closer to a workshop piece than to ordinary village work. Wool of this quality wears in rather than out, so a rug like this will look better in 10 years than it does on the first day. If you are weighing origin against design before you buy, our guide on the difference between a Persian and an Oriental rug explains exactly where a piece like this sits.