9' x 12' Oriental Wool and Silk Rug | Black Lavar Floral Field | Coral Pink Border | Brand New

A black ground is the hardest field a weaver can take on, because every blossom has to be drawn twice as cleanly to read against it. This 9' x 12' hand-knotted rug takes it on and wins: a deep black field packed with small flowerheads, curling boteh and hair-thin vine work, then framed by a wide coral pink border that stops the black from swallowing the room. It is brand new and never walked on, with a wool pile carrying silk highlights on a cotton foundation, and it is an honest example of the fine Oriental rug work now leaving the better Asian workshops. It ships with our certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

There is no central medallion here. The drawing is a true all over floral design in the Lavar idiom, built on a mirrored vine system that repeats up the length of the field and meets at a small 8 petal rosette at the exact center, visible in the close-up photograph. Around it sit split palmettes, tulip and lily forms, tiny 5 petal blossoms and long serrated leaves, with curled boteh tucked into the corners of each repeat so the eye keeps moving instead of settling. The border system runs 5 bands deep: a narrow black outer edge, an ivory vine stripe, a fine teal outline, the wide coral main border with detached flower sprays and standing rosettes, then a second ivory vine band closing against the field. Corners are resolved properly, with the main border pattern turning at each of the 4 corners rather than being cut off, which is the quickest tell of a carefully set-up loom.

Black Field, Coral Border and the Colors In Between

Black is the main color and it is a soft, slightly warm black rather than a flat ink, so the silk highlights in the flowerheads flash as you cross the room. The main border reads coral pink, somewhere between salmon and dusty rose, and it is the color that sets the whole mood of this piece: gentle, not loud, and far easier to live with than a red border would be against so much black. Inside the field the palette is pale and varied, with ivory and cream petals, shell pink and raspberry blossoms, light blue and powder gray flowerheads, ochre and soft gold centers, and sea green foliage that cools the pinks down. The guard stripes are ivory with teal outlines, and the outer edge and selvage are black, which frames the rug cleanly on a light floor. The color balance means it works with charcoal, cream, camel and blush upholstery without any one note taking over.

Made in China, Woven to a Fine Wool and Silk Standard

This rug was hand-knotted in China, where workshops weaving the classical floral repertoire have been producing serious fine work for decades. The evidence is in the weave itself: a short, evenly clipped pile, a knot count high enough to draw a vine thinner than a pencil line, silk used only where it earns its place in petals and leaf tips, and a firm cotton foundation with hand-tied fringe and tight black selvage on both sides, as the folded-corner and back photographs show. At 9 feet by 12 feet it is a standard large room size, and among 9 x 12 rugs a dark field of this density is unusual, because most looms default to ivory or red to make the drawing easier. If you have been comparing hand-knotted Oriental rugs at this scale, the finish on the back and the crispness of the corner resolution are where this one separates itself.