10' x 13' Persian Najafabad Rug | Esfahan Medallion Design | Wool and Silk Pile

This one comes out of Najafabad, the weaving town west of Esfahan, and it is drawn squarely in the Esfahan design tradition: a layered central medallion, a scarlet field filled edge to edge with flowering vine, and a dark border holding the whole composition in place. The pile is wool with silk, clipped low at 1/4 inch, which is why the small flowers stay legible and the ivory elements pick up light as you walk past them. Condition is excellent across all 4 corners and both ends, with an even low pile and clean selvages. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity stating origin, materials and size.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a wide lobed medallion built in rings: a small gold rosette at the core, then a cream band of palmettes and curling leaves, then a dark navy outline that reads almost as a second frame, with pendants running out toward both ends. Around it the red field is not left open anywhere. Thin vines sweep in long arcs and carry ivory and gold palmettes, 8 petal rosettes, split leaves and little nodding flower heads, each one outlined so the drawing holds its shape against the red. The corner spandrels repeat the same vocabulary in ivory on a paler ground, which gives the field a clear diamond shape without hard lines. The main border runs a dark ground with an alternating palmette and vine meander, flanked by narrow floral guard stripes, and the drawing stays continuous around the corners rather than breaking, a sign of a cartoon drawn properly for this size.

Color: Scarlet Field, Deep Navy Border

The field is a true clear scarlet, warm and slightly tomato toned rather than brick or burgundy, and it is the color that carries the room. Against it the main border is a very deep navy that takes on a green black cast in low light, so the edges of the rug settle visually while the center stays bright. The drawing itself is mostly ivory and clotted cream, warmed with soft old gold and a dusty pale celadon green in the leaves, with small notes of rose and pale blue inside individual flower heads. The medallion mixes cream, gold and a touch of grey blue, which is what keeps it from flattening into the field. Silk sits in the lighter elements, so the ivory flowers shift between matte and bright depending on where you stand. Among red Persian rugs, this is the classic high contrast version rather than a soft faded one.

Najafabad and the Esfahan Weaving Tradition

Najafabad sits a short drive west of Esfahan and weaves to Esfahan patterns, using the same cotton foundation, the same curvilinear cartoons and the same habit of pairing wool pile with silk in the highlights. What the town is known for is doing that at room size: Esfahan proper built its name on small finely knotted workshop pieces, while Najafabad looms take the drawing out to formats like this one and keep the curve of the vine honest across 13 feet. The low clipped pile here is deliberate, since the fine floral work only reads if the wool is cut short enough to show the outline. Within our range of 10x13 Persian rugs, pieces like this cover a full seating group or a long dining table while still giving you city workshop drawing rather than village geometry.