10'11" x 14'5" Antique Persian Khorasan Rug | Kermanshah All Over Floral | Burgundy Field, Excellent Condition

This is an antique room size weaving from Khorasan, in the northeast of Persia, drawn in the flower-heavy Kermanshah manner that the old trade reserved for its most decorative large pieces. There is no medallion and no empty ground: the burgundy field is written over completely in vines, palmettes and small blossoms, and the pile has aged to the soft even glow that only decades of honest use produce. At 10'11" x 14'5" it covers a full formal room wall to wall and falls squarely into the 10x14 Persian rugs bracket that most large dining and living rooms are shopping for. Hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation, in excellent condition, and supplied with a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The field is a true all over floral design, with no central medallion to anchor it. Long curving vine stems rise through the field in mirrored vertical columns, opening into serrated palmette heads, 8 petal rosettes, split arabesque leaves and small budding sprays that fill the gaps so completely that almost no open ground is left. Because the repeat mirrors left to right, the drawing reads as ordered rather than busy, and it looks correct from either end of the room. The border system is deep and layered: a wide indigo main band carrying paired palmettes and curling leaf scrolls, framed on both sides by gold and ivory ground floral guard stripes and a run of narrow minor ribbons with tiny meandering blossoms. All 4 corners are resolved cleanly, the mark of a weaver working to a proper cartoon rather than improvising at the turn.

Burgundy Field and Indigo Border Palette

The ground is burgundy, a wine red that moves through brick and soft rose where the old vegetal dye lots change across the width, which is exactly the abrash a collector looks for in a rug of this period. Against it the main border sits in a dark indigo navy that reads almost black in low light and opens into clear midnight blue under a lamp. The drawing itself is carried in ivory and cream, a warm camel gold that dominates the guard stripes, teal and sea green in the leaves, dusty rose and salmon in the smaller flowers, with touches of pale sky blue and deep aubergine brown at the palmette centers. The overall effect is warm and dense rather than bright: burgundy and navy hold the structure, while the ivory and gold linework lifts the pattern off the field so it stays legible from standing height.

Khorasan Origin and Weaving Quality

Khorasan sits in the northeast corner of Persia, and its weaving capital gave its name to the Persian Mashad rugs that collectors know today; you can read more about the region and its workshops in our Mashad rug guide. The wool from this part of Persia is long in staple and unusually lustrous, which is why antique Khorasan weavings polish rather than dull as the pile wears down, and this rug shows exactly that: an even, silky surface with the pattern still crisp. It is knotted on a cotton foundation, with the fine ivory fringe and firm selvedges visible in the close photographs, and the handle is heavy and substantial the way a workshop piece of this scale should be. The Kermanshah name attached to this design refers to the dense rose and palmette drawing style, not the town, and it was applied to the best floral room sizes the Khorasan workshops sent west.