11'5" x 17' Persian Kerman Rug | Navy Blue Field, Rose Medallion | Oversize, Never Used

This is a full palace piece: 11'5" x 17' of hand-knotted wool on a cotton foundation, with a midnight navy open field, a rose and teal lozenge medallion, and a wide salmon and ivory floral border that frames the whole rug. The pile is a generous 3/8", still standing upright and unflattened because the rug has never been laid in a home. Pieces at this width and length were woven on workshop looms for rooms that could take them, which is why the market for them is thin and the drawing is usually better than what village looms produce. It ships with our certificate of authenticity confirming origin, materials and hand-knotted construction, and it belongs in the same conversation as the best oversize Persian rugs we carry.

Design and Motifs

The layout is the classic Kerman formula of an open field held by a single strong medallion. At center sits an elongated 8 lobed lozenge in rose, outlined in seafoam and cream, filled with small palmettes, rosettes and leaf sprays, and finished top and bottom with long feathered pendants. What makes this piece unusual is the field boundary: instead of plain spandrels, the navy ground is cut by a continuous fringe of cream and camel arabesque scrollwork that runs the entire perimeter, so the field reads as a shaped reserve floating on top of the border. The ivory corner spandrels carry fine vines, small blue flowerheads and scattered red buds. The main border is drawn as a garden band, wide and salmon ground, with ivory cartouche panels, urn and vase motifs, arched flowering sprays and teal leafwork, and it is closed by narrow seafoam and ivory guard stripes and a navy outer edge. The entire design is mirrored on both axes, which on a 17 foot loom takes a cartoon and a master weaver, not improvisation.

A Study in Navy, Rose and Ivory

The field is a deep midnight navy that shifts with the light, closer to indigo where the pile leans away from you and almost black in the warehouse photographs. It is a quiet, saturated ground with the gentle tonal movement good hand-dyed wool always shows, and it does the work of making the softer colors look brighter than they are. Against it, the medallion reads as a dusty rose, almost coral at the center, with a pale seafoam and celadon outline and cream and camel tracery. The wide border is a muted salmon pink, warming to terracotta in places, laid over cream and ivory panels that run to a soft wheat tone. Through both border and spandrels there are two distinct blues, a mid teal used for leaves and vines and a darker denim blue for flowerheads, plus small accents of true red in the smallest blossoms and touches of pale green. The overall effect is formal but not heavy: navy discipline with a blush and ivory palette that suits pale plaster, walnut and painted millwork equally well.

Kerman: Weaving City of Southeast Persia

Kerman sits in the southeast of Persia, isolated on the edge of the desert, and it has been a weaving center since the Safavid period, when its looms produced court quality work that was already being exported west. The city's reputation rests on curvilinear drawing and on pictorial garden borders, which is exactly what you see here in the urns, arched flowering sprays and vine work of the main band. Kerman weavers work on a finely spaced cotton foundation, visible on the reverse of this rug, which allows the tight curves of the arabesque fringe and the small floral fill inside the medallion to stay crisp instead of stepping into angles. The wool from the region takes dye deeply and keeps a slight sheen after clipping, and the 3/8" pile height here is typical of good workshop Kerman weaving: enough body to sit flat and heavy on a large floor, short enough to hold detail. For a serious room, this sits at the top of what Persian Kerman rugs offer at palace scale.