Rug 95700

Imagine a vast, oversized rectangular wool rug, so large it defines the entire room it occupies. The initial impression is one of peaceful, palatial grandeur, conveyed through its grand scale and a soft, harmonious color palette. If you were to walk across it barefoot, you would feel a soft, yielding, and comforting wool pile of medium height. The texture is not stiff or overly dense, but supple and plush, with a gentle luster that gives the surface a subtle sheen. The entire rug is intentionally woven to look like a treasured antique; its colors are gently faded, and there are subtle variations in the dye that suggest generations of history, even though it is new.
Let’s begin by exploring the immense central field. This area is a broad expanse of a warm, muted Apricot. This is not a flat, uniform color. It is rich with a feature called “abrash,” meaning there are beautiful, subtle, horizontal shifts in tone from a lighter Pale Terracotta to a deeper apricot. This painterly effect gives the field a wonderful sense of depth and life. Upon this apricot canvas, an all-over pattern of enormous, stylized floral figures is arranged in a formal, repeating grid. The design feels open and airy because these figures, though huge, have a great deal of space between them.
Let’s focus on one of these primary figures. It is a massive, stylized floral form known as a palmette, larger than a dinner plate. It is shaped like a grand, multi-lobed fan, with scalloped edges that gently curl inwards at their tips. This entire grand shape is woven in a soft, dusty Slate Blue. The form is not a solid block of color; it is delicately outlined with a thin line of warm Beige. Inside the blue shape, a smaller, symmetrical tree-like figure grows, woven in a light Sage Green, with small blossoms of Cream at the tips of its branches. At the very heart of the entire blue palmette is a tiny, eight-petaled flower in Cream.
These massive blue palmettes are all interconnected by a network of thick, vine-like structures. These are not soft, curving vines, but are more graphic and angular. They are woven primarily in Sage Green, and from them sprout smaller, stylized leaves and simpler floral shapes in Beige and Apricot. This network creates a sense of formal, structured order that connects the entire pattern across the vast field.
Finally, the entire composition is enclosed by a wide and complex border system that acts as a formal frame. Let’s trace it from the outside in. The rug is finished with a simple, thin outer stripe. Next is the main, wide border. Its background is a warm Beige or Tan. Upon this ground, a continuous and stately pattern repeats. It consists of smaller, angular palmettes woven in Apricot and Slate Blue, which are connected by a geometric vine of Sage Green. On either side of this wide main border are narrower guard stripes. One features a simple, repeating wave-like pattern, often called a running water motif, while others are simple, thin lines of solid color. Together, these layers create a sophisticated frame that perfectly contains the grand, peaceful pattern of the field.