10' x 13'6" Persian Bakhtiar Rug | Garden Panel Khesti Design | 1980s Wool, Excellent Condition

This is the garden panel layout that made Persian Bakhtiar rugs famous, woven here at true room scale. The field is divided into 63 framed compartments, each one a small self-contained garden, and the whole thing is wrapped in a wide ivory border of flowering shrubs and leaf sprays. Hand-knotted in the 1980s on a cotton foundation with a 3/8" wool pile, it has come through decades in excellent condition with a full, even nap and clean white fringes. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity, and at 10' x 13'6" this one covers a full living or dining room without crowding the walls.

Design and Motifs

The khesti, or brick, layout is the Bakhtiar signature: a grid of rectangular panels separated by narrow dark lattice bars studded with tiny cross flowers. No two neighboring squares repeat. Some hold a weeping willow or cypress with a curved trunk, some a stepped hexagonal medallion with paired rosettes, some a boteh leaf on a plain ground, and others a scatter of 8 petal blossoms across an open field. The weaver worked the panels in a loose diagonal rhythm so the eye keeps moving instead of settling, which is exactly how a formal Persian garden plan is meant to read from above. The wide ivory main border carries alternating palmettes and flowering plants, framed by narrow reciprocal guard stripes and a brick red outer band. This kind of controlled, drawn-by-hand variation across an all over field is what separates a village original from a mass-produced copy.

A Multi-Colored Palette Anchored in Burgundy, Navy and Ivory

The panel grounds alternate between deep burgundy, midnight navy, warm brick red and soft ivory, with a scattering of squares in a dusty salmon and antique rose that lift the whole field. Inside the panels the drawing is picked out in cream, sky-touched blue, muted olive, soft brown and small accents of coral. The ivory border is the calm frame that holds all of it together, its cream ground reading almost bone white against the darker field. Under strong light the wool takes on a slight sheen and the burgundy shifts toward garnet, while the navy stays cool and dense. It is a genuinely multi-colored rug, which makes it forgiving in a room that mixes wood tones, leather and painted walls rather than demanding a single matched scheme.

Bakhtiar Weaving in the Chahar Mahal Highlands

Bakhtiar rugs come from the villages of the Chahar Mahal district southwest of Isfahan, woven by settled families of the Bakhtiari tribal confederation in towns such as Shalamzar, Saman and Boldaji. The wool from those high pastures is coarse, lanolin-rich and extremely durable, and the weavers pack it onto a cotton foundation with a heavy beat so the rug sits flat and takes traffic for generations. The knotting here is village work, honest and vigorous rather than fussy, and the slight irregularities in the panel lines are the proof of a hand loom. The 1980s date is consistent with the palette and the state of the pile, and if you want to understand how weavers, dealers and collectors date an Oriental rug, our guide walks through the same evidence. For buyers shopping 10x13 Persian rugs, this is the tough, cheerful end of the category.