9'9" x 9'11" Square Serapi Rug | Rust Field, Ivory Medallion | Hand-Knotted Wool, Made in India

True square rugs in this size are hard to find, and this one is a genuinely square 9'9" x 9'11" piece, knot for knot, not a rectangle trimmed to look like one. It is hand-knotted in India in 100% wool on a cotton foundation, drawn in the Serapi manner with a large ivory medallion panel floating on a rust field. The wool has a dry, chalky sheen that catches light differently from each side of the room, and the pile is cut medium so the outlines of the drawing stay crisp. It is brand new, never used, and ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming that it is hand-knotted. If your room is square or close to it, a matching square rug solves a layout problem that no rectangle will.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a black-ground geometric medallion built around a gold-rimmed rosette with 8 light blue petals, flanked by curling split-leaf arms that end in hooked tips. Around that sits a stepped rust cartouche carrying 4 small cream-and-gold vase panels, and around that again the broad ivory panel with anchor-shaped pendants at top and bottom, each pendant framed in black with a pale blue core. The corner spandrels repeat the ivory ground and fill with serrated leaves, rosettes and small angular blossoms. The main border runs a rust ground with alternating ivory-and-black lozenge cartouches, gold palmettes and upright leaf forms, bracketed by narrow light blue vine guards that thread all 4 sides. Every line in the drawing is straight or stepped, which is exactly what the Serapi archetype asks for, and the weaver kept the two halves of the field balanced without making them mechanically identical.

A Rust and Ivory Palette With Blue and Green Running Through It

The field is rust: a warm terracotta that shifts toward brick and dusty salmon depending on the light and the nap direction, with deeper burgundy outlines giving the motifs their weight. Against it, the medallion panel and spandrels are a soft buttery ivory, closer to cream than to bright white, which is what keeps the contrast easy on the eye rather than harsh. The medallion core is a deep near-black indigo, and inside it the rosette carries powder blue, coral pink, gold and a pinpoint of green. Light blue is the recurring secondary note, running through the vine guards, the small rosettes and the pendant fills, while sage and olive green appear in the leaf tips, the spandrel foliage and the fine outlines. Camel and antique gold do the rest of the work in the border cartouches and palmettes. It is a warm, tea-stained palette overall, and it sits well with wood floors, leather, brass and stone.

Woven in India in the Serapi Manner

India is where most of the world's good contemporary hand-knotted work is now made, and this rug is a clear example of why: the weaving is disciplined, the wool is well spun, and the design has been read from the original village archetype rather than loosely copied. The back photograph shows an even, tightly packed knot field with the pattern reading clearly through to the reverse, and the selvages and hand-tied cotton fringe are clean and straight. That density is what gives a square this size its body; it lies flat, resists crushing under table legs, and takes traffic without shedding its outlines. As an Oriental rug that is brand new and never used, it gives you an antique-inspired design with the full pile height still intact, which is not something you can buy in a genuinely old piece.