10'7" x 17'7" Persian Najafabad Rug | Esfahan Floral Medallion | 1980s Oversize Wool

This is a true room-filling piece, hand-knotted in Najafabad in the 1980s and drawn in the classic Esfahan manner: a deep red field, a round ivory and navy medallion, and a wide indigo border that frames the whole composition. At 10'7" x 17'7" it belongs in the group of oversize Persian rugs that were woven for large formal halls rather than standard living rooms, and it has survived in excellent order with a full, even wool pile and clean cotton fringes at both ends. The wool has taken on the quiet sheen that only decades of settling can give it. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity, and this one carries its original dealer tag reading rug number F5003.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a circular medallion built in layers: an ivory rosette core filled with fine red tracery and small polychrome blossoms, ringed by a navy band of lotus palmettes, then an ivory cloud-collar outline that breaks into curling arabesque hooks. Above and below it sit 2 stepped ivory and navy pendant cartouches, with a further pair of small anchor-shaped pendants extending the vertical axis toward each end. The red ground around the medallion is not left open for a moment: thin gold and blue vines run in mirrored pairs across the whole field, carrying ivory palmettes, blue split leaves, small green foliage and scattered rosettes, and the 4 corners close with ivory spandrels drawn in the same vocabulary at a smaller scale. The border system is 5 bands deep, the main navy band alternating large rose palmettes with upright lotus forms, flanked by ivory guard stripes of rosettes and cypress-like leaflets and an outer sky blue minor stripe.

A Red, Navy and Ivory Palette

The field is a warm true red, closer to a clear crimson than to brick or rust, and it reads slightly deeper under lamplight than it does in flat daylight. Against it the drawing is carried almost entirely in ivory and cream, which keeps the pattern legible from across a large room. The main border is a dark indigo navy, the strongest note in the rug, and it is repeated in the medallion ring and in the outlines of the leaves so the eye travels from the center to the edge without a break. Secondary colors are used in small, deliberate quantities: sky blue in the leaf interiors and the outer guard, olive and mustard gold in the vine stems and palmette hearts, soft rose pink in the border flower heads, and touches of grass green and burnt orange in the rosette centers. The medallion core is the palest area of the rug, a blush ivory that acts as the visual anchor.

Najafabad and the Esfahan Weaving Tradition

Najafabad lies a short distance west of Esfahan in central Persia and weaves to the cartoons of the city workshops, which is why a piece like this is catalogued within the Isfahan rugs group. The difference is one of scale and purpose: Najafabad looms were built wide enough to take palace formats that the small city ateliers rarely attempted, and the weavers used a sturdy all-wool pile on a cotton foundation instead of the silk-highlighted kork favored for signed city pieces. What carries over is the drawing, a curved vine and a balanced medallion that only work when the knotting is tight and consistent across 17 feet of length. The reverse shows a firm, regular grid with the pattern clearly legible knot by knot, and the selvages and fringes are intact, which is the practical reason rugs of this generation are still being bought for daily use rather than storage.