10' x 13'3" Persian Lavar Kerman Rug | Wool | Red and Navy

A 10' x 13'3" carpet knotted by hand in Persia with a wool pile, worked in the Lavar Kerman manner. At a glance it reads as a deep red field carrying a small central medallion, so thickly covered in flowers that the ground shows only between the stems, framed by a navy border. The rectangular format is square-shouldered and the pile stands evenly across the whole surface.

The design

The medallion at the centre is small for a rug this size, a lobed navy cartouche with an ivory heart and a rose of pale blue and green at its middle, finished at either end with a slim pendant. Around it the field runs as an allover lattice of curling vines: open roses, serrated palmettes, tulip forms and tiny five-petalled blossoms, each drawn in outline and filled with a second colour so that no two neighbouring flowers read the same. The corner spandrels are ivory and picked out in blue-green vine work, which breaks the red at the four corners of the field. Three borders enclose the whole: a wide navy main band of palmettes linked by a scrolling stem, flanked by a rose-red guard on one side and an ivory and light blue guard on the other, with narrow barber-pole lines between them.

The colour

The field is a cochineal-leaning red, cool rather than brick, and it holds its tone from selvedge to selvedge. Against it the main border reads as a near-black navy, which throws the paler drawing forward, while the flowers themselves carry sky blue, salmon, rose pink and ivory. Green appears in the leaves and in small doses inside the palmettes, a slightly olive shade that keeps the pinks from turning sweet. The ivory spandrels and the ivory guard stripe are the lightest notes on the rug and do most of the work in separating field from border.

The making

Hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation, with a close, short pile that holds the fine outlining seen in the close photographs of the medallion and the border. The back shows a tight, regular knot and clear definition of the drawing. The table dates it to the 1980's, which places it among the semi-antique weavings, and the condition is given as excellent: full pile, intact selvedges and long ivory fringes at both ends. More Persian city weaving can be found across our full range.