10' x 16'3" Persian Isfahan Rug | Red Field Floral Medallion | Oversize Room Size

This is a full palace-scale Persian Isfahan rug measuring 10' x 16'3", hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation and drawn in the classic central-Persian manner: a single lobed medallion floating in a deep red field of scrolling vine, closed by a wide navy border. At 195 inches long it is a true room filler for a formal living room, a long dining room or a library, and it belongs with the oversize Persian rugs rather than the standard sizes. The pile is even and full from end to end, the sides and ends are intact, and the drawing holds its symmetry across the entire 16 foot length, which is the part that separates a workshop piece from a village copy. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming it is genuinely hand-knotted and made in Persia.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a rounded 16 point medallion built up in layers, an ivory rosette at the core, a ring of small blossoms around it, then serrated leaves and a navy outline that pushes the whole figure forward off the red ground. A slim pendant drops from each end of the medallion toward the field, and the 4 corners repeat a quarter of the same drawing in ivory spandrels filled with fine blue tendrils. Between medallion and corners the field runs as a continuous system of curved vines carrying palmettes, lotus heads, buds and cypress-like leaf forms that mirror precisely across both axes. The main border is a navy ground with alternating palmettes and rosettes joined by a running vine, flanked on both sides by narrow guard stripes of small repeating flower heads. Nothing here is angular or village drawn: the lines are curvilinear throughout, which is the signature of the Isfahan cartoon tradition and only reads correctly at a tight knot count.

Color: Deep Red Field, Navy Border, Ivory Vinework

The field is a warm true red with a faint rose cast under strong light, deeper toward the border and a shade lighter where the medallion halo opens up. Against it the border reads almost black-blue at a distance and resolves into a rich midnight navy up close, with the same navy used as an outline color inside the field so the two zones stay tied together. The third color is ivory, which does most of the work: ivory spandrels, ivory vine scroll, ivory guard stripes and ivory petal centers that keep a red and navy rug from going heavy. Inside the flowers there are secondary tones of soft sky blue, sage and olive green, a muted camel brown and small touches of rose pink that appear in the border rosettes. The ivory fringe and the pale warp visible on the reverse confirm a clean cotton foundation under the wool.

Isfahan Weaving and Quality

Isfahan sits in central Persia and has been a weaving capital since the Safavid court workshops of the 16th century. Its reputation rests on drawing rather than on decoration: the curved line, the flowing vine and the precision of a repeated motif, all of which require a high knot count and a disciplined workshop to execute. Weaving a cartoon of this complexity at 10 feet wide is a multi-year loom commitment, with several weavers working shoulder to shoulder across the width and a master reading the design, and the fact that the medallion sits true and the borders turn cleanly at all 4 corners tells you it was well supervised. The wool pile is dense and tightly packed, the back shows small regular knot nodes, and the result is a rug with the weight and body to sit flat under heavy furniture for generations.