1900s Indian Amritsar Salmon Pink Handmade Wool Rug BB5722 9'10" × 14'0" $18,000

An early 20th century antique Indian rug, this unique piece features a large salmon pink medallion containing and surrounded by elaborate floral abstractions and arabesques against a cream field. More pinks and greens appear in botanical shapes between the guard and main borders. The boteh motif, a staple of indian amritsar rugs, repeats throughout the design. A pear-shaped figure characteristic of the paisley pattern, the boteh may represent a leaf or a pinecone.

The antique carpet comes from Amritsar (meaning “the lake of immortality” in Sanskrit), a city in the northwest of India near the Kashmir region. The weavers of this city’s tradition created unique textiles in part because they had not developed a distinctive style of area rug-weaving as early as other Indian counterparts. While regions of southern and western India began weaving Persian-influenced antique rugs during the Mughal era, the weavers of Amritsar took their direction from the sensibilities of the West.