This early 20th-century Chinese Art Deco rug is a vibrant tableau of leisure, abundance, and artistic sophistication. Two elegant women walk gracefully along the edge of a lush garden, each carrying a basket brimming with vegetables. A large palm tree arches overhead in the foreground, while a tranquil pond with blooming lotus flowers shimmers in the background. Slender stalks of bamboo frame the scene, and a distant pagoda alludes to the women’s cultured, scholarly lives. The border is a triumph of decorative design, with oversized peonies, chrysanthemums, and scrolling vines unfurling in a rhythmic floral procession. Woven in brilliant vegetable-dyed wools—violet, fuchsia, indigo, green, and gold—the rug dazzles with saturated color and fluid artistry. A masterful blend of tradition and modernity, this rug is a striking example of eastern Art Deco aesthetic that defined Chinese weaving in the early 20th century.
