10'2" x 13'10" Persian Rug | Traditional Floral Medallion | Fine Wool, 1980s

Opened out to 10'2" x 13'10", this is the kind of hand-knotted Persian floral rug that anchors a whole room rather than decorating a corner of it. The pile is wool on a cotton foundation, knotted in the 1980s, and the piece has survived with an even, unworn surface and full original ends, which is why the condition reads Excellent rather than good. The drawing is fully curvilinear: a sky blue and navy star medallion floating on a deep red field, framed by three borders and finished with a red selvage and clean ivory fringe. It sits naturally with the other 10x14 Persian rugs we import directly, and it ships with our certificate of authenticity confirming it as a genuine one-of-a-kind handmade piece.

Design and Motifs

The center holds an 8 petal star rosette, drawn in stepped layers of light blue, navy and ivory around a small gold and red core, with lobed cartouches and curled cloud-band forms radiating from it. Around that medallion the field runs as a dense all over floral composition of palmettes, open rosettes, tulip heads, serrated leaves and hair-thin vine scroll, mirrored perfectly across both axes. Pale grey-celadon spandrels cut the 4 corners and carry arabesque and split-leaf work that reads almost like a second design layer. The navy main border is filled with alternating palmettes and ivory blossom clusters, flanked by a salmon-ground floral stripe and a sky blue guard stripe, and the corners are resolved cleanly instead of being cut off mid-motif.

Color: Deep Red Field, Layered Blues and Salmon

The field is a deep tomato red with a slight cherry cast where the light catches the pile, and it stays remarkably even from end to end. Against it the weaver worked at least 3 distinct blues: a dark inky navy for outlines and the main border ground, a mid sky blue for the medallion plates and rosettes, and a softer powder blue used in the guard stripe and parts of the spandrels. Ivory and cream carry the blossom detail and keep the busy field legible, while salmon and apricot warm the inner stripe and the corner drawing. Light grey-celadon spandrels, rust, olive-gold and small touches of pink fill out the palette, and the close-up photographs show the tones repeating cleanly on both faces of the rug.

Persian Origin and Weaving Quality

This is workshop weaving from Persia in the classic town tradition: a cartooned curvilinear design, a cotton warp and weft holding the rug square across more than 10 feet of width, and a wool pile clipped low enough for the drawing to stay crisp. Curved vine work at this scale only comes off when the knot count is high enough to carry a smooth line, and the back photograph shows a tight, regular knotting with no slack rows or bowing. The soft handle and the slightly mellowed reds are consistent with a piece from the 1980s, the sort of detail used to date an Oriental rug alongside the wool, the dyes and the finishing of the ends. Four decades on, the wool still has body, and this rug has plenty of floor life left in it.