Antique Aubusson Rugs
A flat-woven French tapestry carpet from the town of Aubusson, made as a pileless floor covering for European interiors.
Antique Aubusson Rugs
Aubusson is a town in central France whose workshops have woven tapestry and flat tapestry-weave carpets since the seventeenth century. The floor pieces were a lighter, pileless alternative to knotted carpets, and their scrolling floral and medallion designs became a fixture of European decoration through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
The version you'll meet most often is a French Aubusson with no maker named and a broad date. Eight of twenty-four listings on Sellingantiques carry only "19th Century" in the dated field, so a third of the category is placed to a hundred-year span rather than a decade. The field itself runs from 1800 to 1930.
Sizes run from a near-square rug of 175 x 155cm up to room-size and beyond, the largest recorded at 590 x 500cm. "Carpet" is the commonest word in the titles, appearing in ten of twenty-four, and the larger pieces tend to be called carpets while the smaller ones are rugs. Two listings offer the same piece as either rug or wall hanging, which the flat weave allows.
Alongside the French Aubussons sit a few pieces described only as "Aubusson style" or "Aubusson design" tapestry weaving. Further out again are two one-offs in Aubusson taste rather than Aubusson work: a Kashmir chain stitch rug in Aubusson design, and a Caucasian Karabagh rug with a French-inspired rose design.
What Sets Them Apart
The first divide is the wording of the claim. Titles that name French Aubusson directly, or read "Aubusson carpet, France", sit from the middle of the range upward. The three "Aubusson Style Tapestry Rug" listings and the chain stitch rug in Aubusson design all sit at the cheapest end.
Size does most of the rest of the work. The two largest carpets recorded, at 590 x 500cm and 472 x 396cm, both sit high in the range, while the smallest measured piece, the near-square rug, lands mid-range. Room-size and "large" appear in five or six of the titles.
Date precision follows the same pattern. The top entries carry a committed year, 1850 and 1800, while the vaguer "19th Century" field dominates the lower and middle ground. Dealers who reach for "fine" or "very fine" in a title, three of them here, are also describing pieces in the upper half.
Antique Aubusson Rugs Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for aubusson rugs, calculated from the Sellingantiques database of over a million retail prices indexed since 2003. This retail price guide relies exclusively on Sellingantiques data; no external sources or auction records are used, so the figures do not describe the wider market.
19th Century is the period label used most on Sellingantiques for Aubusson rugs. Where a decade is given, the 1850s lead.
The Antique Aubusson Rugs Glossary
- Aubusson
- A French weaving centre, and by extension a flat tapestry-woven carpet or rug in that tradition.
- Aubusson style
- Used in titles for a piece woven in the manner or design of Aubusson rather than claimed as French Aubusson work.
- Tapestry rug
- A pileless, flat-woven rug. The term turns up in four of the sampled titles.
- Room size
- Dealer shorthand for a carpet large enough to cover a whole floor, used once in this archive.
- Circa
- An approximate date. Several titles use it where the dated field then records a single year.
- Chain stitch
- An embroidered rather than woven technique, present on the one Kashmir rug in Aubusson design.
Antique Aubusson Rugs: Frequently Asked Questions
Are rugs and carpets different things here?
In these titles the larger pieces tend to be called carpets and the smaller ones rugs, and the split is fairly even. "Carpet" appears in ten of twenty-four titles.
Where dimensions are given they cluster between roughly 1.5m and 3.3m in the longer direction, with a handful above 4.5m.
How old are they?
The dated field spans 1800 to 1930. Fourteen of the twenty-four listings carry a clean year; the other eight are dated simply "19th Century".
Where dealers commit to a decade, the 1850s lead with four listings, then the 1920s with three, the 1930s and 1870s with two each.
Can an Aubusson be hung on a wall?
Two listings offer the same piece as either a rug or a wall hanging, which reflects the flat tapestry weave rather than a pile carpet.
The rest are offered as floor pieces, rugs or carpets.
Do twentieth-century Aubussons turn up?
They do, as a small but real presence. Three of the twenty-four listings date from the 1920s and two from the 1930s.
The dated field stops at 1930, so nothing later than that is recorded in this category on Sellingantiques.
What does "Aubusson style" mean in a title?
It describes a piece woven in the manner or design of Aubusson rather than claimed as French Aubusson work. Three titles read that way, all "Aubusson Style Tapestry Rug" or similar.
Those three sit at the bottom of the sampled range, as does a Kashmir chain stitch rug listed in Aubusson design.
How many come up for sale?
Around four Aubusson rugs or carpets are listed on Sellingantiques in a year, spread across eight dealers.
So no single dealer holds the category, and the supply arrives in ones and twos rather than groups.