Rugsville Agra Red Ivory Wool Carpet 9' x 12'

Red and ivory is the foundational Agra palette, the combination that defined the imperial Mughal floor in the audience halls of Akbar and Shah Jahan and continued through the workshops that supplied the European drawing rooms of the nineteenth century. Madder root for the field, undyed wool for the medallions and vine work, indigo for the smaller accents and the inner border. It is the most photographed carpet palette in the textile record because it works at every scale of architecture and continues to age gracefully across generations.

This carpet was hand-knotted across roughly six months on a vertical Indian loom by three weavers. The wool is hand-spun on a cotton foundation, knotted with the asymmetric knot that gives Agra floral motifs their characteristic resolution. The madder for the red ground was prepared in copper vats over two weeks, allowing the pigment to mature before the wool was lowered. Indigo for the inner border followed a separate three-week preparation. The undyed ivory wool was washed but not bleached, which is why it reads warm rather than stark.

The composition

A deep madder-red ground, with a central medallion in ivory and gold, vine work and palmettes spreading from the medallion in restrained density rather than the over-packed style of lesser pieces. The border carries a single deep indigo guard with floral repeats in ivory and rust. The red is not a single saturation but a measured tonal range across the field, and the ivory medallion lifts cleanly above it without competing. The whole composition reads classical at a distance and reveals the hand of the weaver in the small irregularities at close range.

What you are buying

Antique Agra red-and-ivory carpets of this scale, with attribution to the late nineteenth or early twentieth century and stable condition, move through Christie's, Sotheby's, and the European specialist trade at $20,000 to $50,000 when they appear at all. The piece here is a contemporary weaving in the same lineage, on the same kind of loom, in the same fibre, with the same vegetable dye chemistry. The rug appreciates with use rather than depreciating, and the red softens toward terracotta over a generation in a way that printed reproduction never replicates.

The piece in a room

9' x 12' (274 x 366 cm) is the size at which the Agra red-and-ivory palette is most legible, the scale at which the medallion can breathe and the border can hold its full pattern repeat without compression. The carpet expects an eight or ten seat dining table or a full sectional sofa above it. Mid-tone or warm-white walls hold the saturation. Direct daylight is welcome; UV maintains the depth of madder over time rather than fading it.

Conservation

Rotate the carpet a half turn each spring and autumn for even fade. Vacuum weekly on suction only, beater bar disengaged. Blot spills with cold water on clean cotton, working from outside in; never rub. Avoid alkaline cleaners which lift madder. Hand wash by a wool-trained conservator every five years. With this care, the carpet runs eighty years of household use and remains conservable for at least one more generation beyond.

Reference

• Medium: hand-knotted wool on cotton foundation
• Dimensions: 274 x 366 cm (9' x 12')
• Construction: Agra-tradition asymmetric knot
• Hands: 3 weavers, around 6 months
• Pile: 10 mm hand-spun wool
• Dye: vegetable, madder ground with indigo and undyed ivory accents
• Origin: India

Free shipping nationwide in India. Cash on delivery available. 7-day exchange from the delivery date. The carpet arrives crated in re-usable packaging suitable for storage or future relocation.