11'8" x 14'10" Authentic Hand-Knotted Oriental Agra Rug | Black and Gold All-Over Floral Design with Large Palmettes and Scrolling Vines | 100% Wool on Cotton Foundation | 180 KPSI

A truly handsome, statement-making piece, this 11'8" x 14'10" authentic hand-knotted Oriental Agra rug pairs a deep midnight black ground with luminous antique gold, ivory, and rose floral drawing in the classical Indo-Persian Sultanabad-revival manner that has made Agra weaving one of the most sought-after sources of formal black-ground rugs in the world. The rug is hand-knotted in 100% wool on a cotton foundation at approximately 180 knots per square inch, with a generous pile height of about 0.41 inches that gives it the soft, plush hand and substantial weight collectors look for in a top-quality Agra. The composition is a calm, perfectly symmetrical all-over field of large palmettes and scrolling vines, framed by a wide soft-gold main border filled with palmette and rosette repeats. The rug is in excellent brand-new condition, never used, and ready to anchor a formal living room, dining room, library, or great room.

Design and Motifs

The composition is a classical Agra all-over floral, organized as a balanced lattice of large palmettes, lotus blossoms, leafy rosettes, and curling tendrils that flow continuously from edge to edge across the deep black field with no central medallion to interrupt the rhythm. Across the field, the design alternates oversized palmette heads, drawn in soft gold and ivory with rose and pistachio centers, with smaller secondary palmettes and dense scrolling vinework that ties the entire field into a single woven garden. The drawing is the calm, mature, slightly stylized Sultanabad and Mahal-revival idiom that defines the best Agra workshops, where every motif is given room to breathe and the eye is led gently around the field rather than locked into one focal point. The wide main border is woven on a soft antique-gold ground and carries a stately repeat of large palmettes alternating with smaller floral cartouches and curling leaves, while narrow inner and outer guard stripes carry rose, gold, and black floral repeats that frame the composition without competing with the main field. The overall effect is formal but never stiff, an old-world elegance that reads beautifully in both traditional and modern interiors.

Colors and Placement

The palette is the iconic Agra "black and gold" formula, built around a deep midnight black field that reads almost like rich espresso in soft light, lifted by warm antique gold, ivory, and cream florals, with secondary accents of soft rose, dusty pink, deep red, sage, olive, taupe, and mustard threaded through the palmettes and vines. The black ground gives the rug serious visual weight and makes it one of the most flexible foundation rugs you can choose for a formal room: it grounds light walls, complements dark wood floors and antique furniture, and acts as the perfect backdrop for cream sofas, leather chairs, statement chandeliers, and original art. The soft-gold main border keeps the composition warm and luminous, framing the field rather than closing it off. At 11'8" x 14'10" the rug sits beautifully under a full living room seating arrangement with all furniture legs on, under a 10 to 12 person dining table with chairs comfortably pulled out, in a great room or family room as a single dominant anchor, in a primary bedroom with the rug extending well beyond a king bed on all sides, in a study, library, or executive office, in a foyer or grand entry hall, and in hotel and club lobby applications. It pairs effortlessly with traditional, transitional, neoclassical, English country, and even contemporary or Art Deco interiors.

Indo Agra Rugs and Construction

Agra has been one of India's most important weaving cities since the Mughal era, when emperors Akbar, Jahangir, and Shah Jahan established imperial workshops that produced some of the finest Indo-Persian carpets ever woven. The classical Mughal Agra style absorbed influences from Safavid Persia and married them to Indian floral drawing and color sensibility, producing the all-over floral, palmette, and leafy-vine compositions that define the Agra tradition to this day. Modern Indo Agra production continues that lineage in workshops across northern India, where master weavers reproduce classical Agra and Sultanabad-revival patterns using hand-spun wool, cotton foundations, and traditional vegetable and metal-complex dyes that age beautifully over decades. This rug is hand-knotted using the Persian senneh asymmetric knot at approximately 180 knots per square inch, equivalent to roughly 28 knots per cm², and a total of approximately 3.1 million individual hand-tied knots across the full 173 square foot surface. The pile is 100% wool with a generous height of about 0.41 inches, giving the rug the substantial weight and plush hand that collectors associate with top-tier Agra workshop production. The foundation is 100% cotton, the standard for fine Agra weaving, providing the dimensional stability that allows a rug of this size to lie perfectly flat under heavy furniture for generations. Construction of an Indo Agra at this size, density, and pile height represents many months of work for a team of skilled weavers, and an authentic hand-knotted Agra in brand-new never-used condition at this scale represents a rare opportunity to acquire a true investment-grade carpet at a significant discount to the comparable antique market.