Antique Hooked American Rug 2358

Hooked Rug, America, Circa 1900 - American hooked rugs typically have simple geometric designs or pictorial imagery steeped in homespun primitive charm. This example, however, is off the charts in its quality of drawing and design, its use of rich color, and in its exotic subject matter. A black jaguar or panther crawls stealthily across a bough, growling in defiance. He is surrounded by lush tropical leaves and flowers rendered in saturated pungent tones of orange, red, green, and mauve, against the cool lavender aubergine ground. This would be a remarkable painting. As an American vernacular or folk art rug it is simply incomparable.