#68780 • $38,000 Gallery Retail, Monumental French Handmade Wool Carpet in the Old Savonnerie Tradition, Open Ivory Field with Scrolling Floral Border, Made in France, Genuine Handmade, 10.7' x 12.1'

Part of $2.8 Million McLean Mansion Luxury Downsizing Auction (timed auction by Prime Auction Solutions)

Status: Sold

A carpet of rare distinction and distinguished provenance, offered from a gallery closure collection at a fraction of its $38,000 gallery retail value. Made in France, bearing the Genuine Handmade designation, and executed in the celebrated Old Savonnerie tradition, this is among the most historically significant and decoratively prestigious rug formats available to the collector and interior designer. The Savonnerie tradition has its origins in the early 17th century when the French monarchy, unwilling to continue paying ransom prices for imported Oriental carpets, established a carpet weaving manufactory near the Louvre in a building that had once been the royal soap factory, in French "La Savonnerie." The greatest artists of the day were commissioned to make designs, and virtually the whole output was earmarked for the king, with splendid carpets filling the Louvre and the great French palaces. Savonnerie carpets are the French court rug ideal: plush underfoot, composed in the room, and decorated with garlands, scrollwork, and neoclassical symmetry that feels instantly architectural. To own a carpet in this tradition is to participate in one of the most illustrious chapters in the history of European decorative arts. This example presents the defining characteristics of the Old Savonnerie vocabulary with full conviction. The field is a vast, open expanse of warm ivory and antique cream, the kind of grand, unencumbered openness that only the most confident and accomplished rug designs can sustain without becoming empty. It is framed by a border program of considerable richness: scrolling acanthus leaf cartouches, floral garlands in soft rose, sage green, and dusty gold, and the layered architectural framing devices that give the Savonnerie border its characteristic sense of depth and perspective. Corner cartouches carry floral bouquet arrangements in the Rococo taste, their soft naturalistic rendering in quiet contrast to the formality of the surrounding scrollwork. French rugs are prized for their decorative intelligence: balanced composition, elegant scrollwork, floral garlands, neoclassical medallions, and a finished look that reads beautifully in classic interiors and clean modern rooms. This piece delivers all of these qualities in a format that is genuinely room-defining. At 10.7 by 12.1 feet it fills a formal dining room, library, or drawing room with the kind of considered, palatial presence that no other rug tradition achieves. The carpet displays the beautiful aged patina and character consistent with a piece of genuine age and provenance. The field shows the kind of soft, even toning that only years of careful use impart, giving the ivory ground a warmth and complexity that new production cannot replicate. The border retains its color and detail well. Condition should be examined in person and any restoration requirements noted before finalizing the estimate. Genuine handmade wool construction. Old Savonnerie design. Open ivory field with scrolling floral border. Soft rose, sage, and gold accents. Made in France. Gallery retail $38,000. Part of a gallery closure collection. Size: 10.7' x 12.1.'