11'4" x 16'1" Persian Najafabad Rug | Esfahan Floral Medallion | Oversize Room Size

This 11'4" x 16'1" Persian Najafabad rug is a full room size piece, hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation and drawn in the classical Esfahan design tradition: a lobed navy medallion suspended in a red field of curling vine. At 136 inches by 193 inches it will carry a large living room from wall to wall, or seat a 10 seat dining table with all 4 chair legs staying on the pile when pulled out. The pile reads full and even in the photographs, the drawing holds its symmetry across a very wide loom, and the condition is excellent. Shoppers comparing oversize Persian rugs should note that pieces at this weight ship free in all 50 states here, with no freight surcharge, and every rug leaves with a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a stepped, lobed medallion in deep navy, built around a pale blue rosette core with a small ivory 8 petal flower at the very middle. Ram horn hooks step out from the medallion at 4 points, and a slender pendant reaches north and south into the field, each one closing in a light blue cartouche. Corner spandrels in the same navy repeat the medallion vocabulary at quarter scale, their inner edges outlined in a pale grey-blue line that keeps them legible against the red. Between and around all of it runs a true all-over floral field: thin arabesque vines, split palmettes, curled serrated leaves, tulip and carnation heads, and small blossoms scattered on fine stems so that no area of the red is left empty. The main border is a navy ground carrying alternating palmettes and rosettes on a linked vine, flanked by ivory and rose guard stripes and finished with a narrow reciprocal outer band. It is drawing meant for a large rug, where the eye needs both a strong center and something to read at close range.

A Deep Red Field Framed in Indigo

The field is a true madder red, warm rather than orange, and it shifts slightly under raking light as the pile lies one way or the other. Against it the border and medallion sit in a dark indigo navy that in the close photographs breaks into 2 tones, a near black blue in the outlines and a softer slate blue in the open ground. The drawing itself is carried in ivory and cream, which does most of the work of separating one motif from the next, with light powder blue used on the inner rosettes and the pendant cartouches. Olive green leaves, mustard and old gold palmettes, soft rose and dusty pink blossoms, and small notes of brown and terracotta fill in the rest, and the effect at a distance is a red rug with a blue frame, while up close it is easily 10 distinct colors. The ivory guard stripes and pale outer band give the whole piece a clean edge instead of letting the navy run straight into the floor.

Najafabad and the Esfahan Weaving Tradition

Najafabad is a weaving town a short drive west of Esfahan in central Persia, and it works from the same cartoons and the same design vocabulary as the city workshops. The difference is scale and material: the Esfahan city ateliers built their reputation on small, extremely fine wool and silk pieces, while Najafabad looms were set up wide enough to weave room size and oversize rugs like this one in all wool. That is why a piece of this format exists at all, and why it is a practical rug rather than a wall hanging. The back photograph shows the weave clearly, with tight, regular rows on a cotton foundation and clean color changes where the medallion outline crosses the field, the sign of a weaver following a proper cartoon rather than improvising. The wool takes a low sheen where the pile has been walked, which is exactly what you want in a rug of this size, and the side finishes and ends read straight and secure.