9' x 12' Chobi Oriental Rug | Black Field with Ivory Floral Border | Vegetable Dyed Wool, Brand New

A black ground is the hardest field color to pull off in a hand-knotted rug, because every flower drawn on top of it has to be strong enough to read at a distance, and this piece manages it. The wool is hand-spun and colored with vegetable dyes, so the ivory, gold and coral flowers sit on the dark ground with a soft, slightly uneven glow rather than a flat printed look. At 3/8 inch the pile is substantial without being shaggy, the cotton foundation is tight and even, and the rug lies dead flat on the floor in the showroom photographs. Every rug we sell, this Oriental rug included, ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming it is 100% hand-knotted. In a standard 9x12 room size, it is a piece that anchors a large space without demanding a matching palette around it.

Design and Motifs

There is no medallion here. The field carries a classic all-over floral lattice built from thin scrolling vines that link large lobed palmettes, cloud-band leaves, curled serrated leaves and small 8 petal rosettes. The drawing repeats in offset rows so the eye keeps moving across the whole 12 foot length instead of stopping in the center, and the weavers have varied the flower colors within each row so no two adjacent blossoms read the same. The main ivory border runs a continuous vine of shield-shaped palmettes and stylized blossoms, flanked on both sides by a narrow gold guard stripe of running rosettes, with a fine outer stripe framing all 4 corners. Corner resolution is clean: the border vine turns properly at each corner rather than being cut off, which is the tell of a careful cartoon and a patient weaver. The close-up photograph shows how much small detail is packed between the big palmettes, including tiny buds, leaf sprays and rosettes filling the ground.

Color: Black Ground, Ivory Border, Antique Gold and Coral

The field is a deep, near-charcoal black with the natural abrash of hand-spun wool, so under raking light it moves between soft ink and pure black rather than sitting dead. Against it the palmettes are worked in antique gold, wheat, buttery tan and sage green, with pale ivory used for the highlights and the smaller rosettes so the pattern stays legible from across a room. Coral and dusty salmon appear as accent flowers scattered through the field and again in the border, and there are muted lavender and grey-blue touches inside some of the larger leaves. The wide main border is a warm ivory that reads closer to cream or oatmeal than white, edged in gold, which lifts the whole rug and keeps the black from feeling heavy. The outer selvage is black and the fringe is natural cotton white. In practice this palette is easy to live with: it works over pale hardwood as photographed, and it pairs with warm neutrals, camel leather, walnut and brass without needing anything else in the room to be black.

Made in India: The Chobi Tradition and Weaving Quality

Chobi means wood in Persian usage, a reference to the plant and vegetable dyes, walnut husk, madder root, indigo and pomegranate rind among them, that give these rugs their soft depth. The style grew out of the 19th century Sultanabad and Ziegler workshop drawings and is now woven at its best in India, which is honestly where most of the world's good contemporary hand-knotted work is produced today. This piece shows why: hand-spun wool that takes dye unevenly in the right way, a double-wefted cotton foundation, and a knot count even enough that the vine lines stay thin and continuous rather than stepping. The back photograph, with the ruler laid across the weave, shows the knot nodes clearly and confirms the rug is knotted by hand rather than tufted or machine made, with a hand-knotted cotton fringe that is an extension of the warps. At 9 feet by 12 feet it is a serious floor covering, and because the pile is 3/8 inch dense wool it will take heavy traffic for decades.