Mid-20th century Chinese Art Deco Rust Red, Brown, Beige, Blue Handmade Wool Rug BB5947 9'2" × 14'0" $9,000

This circa 1940 vintage Chinese Deco rug features an all-over design of flowers and scrolling cloud bands in light beige against a field of rust red. Scrolling swastika motifs in the blue border, characteristic of traditional Chinese carpet weaving, add a feel of antiquity to the otherwise modernist Chinese deco rug.

The vintage round rug is an intriguing relic of one of the most elegant times in America – the Jazz Age, following a disruption of the usual Mideastern trade for luxury antique carpet during the first World War. Looking to China to fill the textile vacuum, American entrepreneurs inspired a production of Western-looking variations on traditional Chinese design. The rugs perfectly complemented the extravagant style of the West at the time and became known as Chinese Art Deco, even though there was no Art Deco movement in China itself.