9' x 12' Agra Rug | Ivory Esfahan All Over Floral Design | New Wool Pile, Made in India

This 9' x 12' Agra rug is a brand new, hand-knotted piece from northern India, woven in wool on a cotton foundation and never put down in a home. The ivory field carries a classic Esfahan style all over floral design, framed by a wide cocoa brown border and two sage green guard stripes, and the pile still has the full, springy hand of a rug that has just come off the loom. At 108" x 144" it is the standard American living room and dining room footprint, one of the most requested formats among 9 x 12 area rugs, and it reads as a quiet neutral from across a room while rewarding a close look. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming it is a genuine hand-knotted piece.

Design and Motifs

The field is drawn in the Esfahan manner: a continuous lattice of thin curling vines that links large fan palmettes, split leaf rosettes and serrated saz leaves, with small tulips, carnations and blossom sprays filling every open space between them. Nothing repeats mechanically. The palmettes alternate in size and color as the lattice climbs, and the weaver has let secondary tendrils break the symmetry so the eye keeps moving across the 12' length. The main border runs a chain of large rounded medallions, some ivory with a rose center, some rust with a blue and gold heart, joined by an arabesque vine that turns cleanly at all 4 corners. Both guard borders carry a reciprocating ribbon meander with tiny leaf and flower pendants, and the outer edge finishes in a plain ivory selvage above hand-tied cotton fringe.

A Palette of Ivory, Rust, Brown and Sage

The ground is a warm ivory with a faint cream cast that shifts toward pale sand where the light rakes the pile. Against it the drawing works in rust, terracotta and brick, soft rose and old pink, olive and moss green, gold, camel and a deep chocolate brown, with small accents of teal and denim blue inside the palmette centers that keep the whole palette from going flat. The main border is a mellow cocoa brown that photographs closer to camel in raking light, and the two guard stripes are a muted sage green, the coolest note in the rug and the reason the warm browns read as soft rather than heavy. It is an earth tone rug at heart, easy alongside walnut and oak furniture, cream upholstery, brass and unlacquered hardware.

Agra Weaving and Quality

Agra, the Mughal capital and home of the Taj Mahal, has been a court weaving center since the 16th century, and its workshops have always drawn on the classical floral vocabulary rather than tribal geometry. India is where most of the world's best contemporary hand-knotted work is made today, and this piece shows why: tightly packed knots on a cotton warp and weft, crisp outlines on every palmette, straight sides, square corners and a heavy, even wool pile that has been sheared low enough to hold the fine vine work. Turn the corner over and the design is legible from the back, the mark of honest knot count rather than a heavy pile hiding a loose weave. If you are weighing this against a Persian piece, our guide to what separates a Persian rug from an Oriental rug explains exactly where the two traditions part ways.