10' x 17'8" Persian Sarough Rug | All-Over Floral Sprays | Oversize, Never Used

At 10' x 17'8" this is a true room-filling piece, long enough to run the full length of a great room or a 14 seat dining table and still show a margin of floor on every side. It is a hand-knotted Persian Sarough rug in the classic formula: a deep brick red field carrying detached floral sprays from selvage to selvage, closed by a dark brown border of palmettes and vine. The wool pile stands a full 3/8" and has never been walked on, so the surface still has the tight, upright nap and slight sheen of a rug straight off the loom. Pieces this long are genuinely scarce, and buyers looking at oversize Persian rugs will know how rarely a 10 by 18 shows up unused. Every rug we ship carries a certificate of authenticity confirming origin, materials and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

The field is drawn in the detached spray manner that defines the Sarough repertoire: no continuous lattice, no connecting vine, just free-standing bouquets, serrated palmettes, curled saz leaves and small flowering vases set at measured intervals across the red ground. Look closely and the drawing pairs off in mirrored halves, with heart-shaped blossoms and hooked stems repeating up the length of the rug. At the center sits a small horizontal cluster of linked rosettes, more a pause in the pattern than a formal medallion, which is exactly how Sarough weavers handle an all-over layout on a long piece. The main border runs a steady procession of large palmettes and fan flowers on an undulating vine, flanked by narrow reciprocal guard stripes and a fine outer meander. Because the pattern repeats rather than radiates, the rug reads well from any doorway and takes furniture across it without losing the design.

A Deep Red Field Framed in Dark Brown

The ground is a saturated brick red with a faint brown undertone, the kind of madder-family red that reads warm under lamplight and slightly deeper by day. Against it the floral work is built from ivory and soft cream, pale sage and celadon green in the leaves, muted salmon rose in the blossom hearts, and small touches of gold and charcoal outlining. The main border reverses the scheme onto a very dark brown ground that photographs close to black in the close-up shots, which throws the ivory vine and rose palmettes forward and gives the whole rug a firm edge. Thin pale green and ivory guard stripes separate field from border and keep the two reds from crowding each other. If your palette runs to warm neutrals, walnut and oak floors or cream upholstery, this sits in the heart of the red and burgundy rugs range.

Sarough Weaving in Central Persia

Sarough is a weaving town in the Arak district of central Persia, and its looms built their reputation on weight rather than knot count theatrics. The weave here is dense and the pile is left long at 3/8", knotted on a cotton foundation that gives the rug body and keeps a 17'8" length lying flat and square. The fold-back photograph shows even, regular knotting across the back and clean ivory fringe, with straight selvages and no drawn-in edges. That combination, heavy wool over a firm cotton base, is why Sarough pieces became the standard heavy-duty room-size rug for American houses a century ago and why they still take decades of traffic in a hallway or dining room without thinning. Woven wide on a large loom, a piece of this length would have taken a two or three weaver team a long stretch at the bench.