11'6" x 16' Persian Kerman Rug | Open Ruby Red Field, Ivory Floral Medallion | Semi-Antique 1970s

Kerman weavers were never shy about scale, and this piece is proof. The field is a single sweep of deep ruby red wool, uninterrupted for several feet in every direction, with one large ivory and navy medallion floating at the center and a wide garden border closing it in. Woven in the 1970s and kept in excellent condition with full even pile, it measures 11'6" x 16', which places it among the true oversize Persian rugs that can carry a long formal room without a seam of floor showing. A certificate of authenticity is issued with the rug.

Design and Motifs

The drawing is classic Kerman: a lobed oval medallion built from hundreds of tiny roses, hyacinth sprays and feathered acanthus leaves, anchored by a small 4 petal rosette at the very center and finished at each end with a long floral pendant that trails down into the plain field. Around the medallion the red ground is left deliberately empty, which is the hardest thing a weaver can attempt at this size, since any drift in the knot count would show immediately. The wide border reverses the scheme, setting bouquets and paisley boteh forms in rose, pale blue, gold and green against an inky navy ground, with a scrolling vine that turns cleanly at all 4 corners. Two red guard bands frame it, each carrying a running line of small blossoms.

A Deep Ruby Red Field Against Navy and Garden Blues

The field reads as a deep ruby red with a cool burgundy undertone, the kind of saturated tone that deep red and burgundy Persian rugs are bought for, and the pile is thick enough that it shifts between wine and cherry as you walk the room. The medallion is worked in soft ivory and pale gold with a dark navy outline that gives it definition from across the room. Inside the border and the medallion the palette opens up into the full Kerman garden range: cornflower and slate blue flower heads, sage and olive leaves, dusty rose, coral pink, buttercup gold and clean cream. Nothing is loud on its own, and the overall effect against the red is jewel-toned rather than busy.

Kerman, Southeast Persia, and the Weave of This Piece

Kerman sits at the desert edge of southeast Persia and has been the home of curvilinear floral weaving for centuries, known above all for its pictorial garden borders and for the soft, springy local wool that gives these rugs their plush hand. This one is knotted on a cotton foundation with a full wool pile, the back showing a tight, regular grid of knots and clean, even selvages, which is what you want to see on a piece this wide. Pile depth and color are consistent from end to end, the fringe is original and intact, and the handle is heavy and supple rather than stiff. For a piece from the 1970s the condition sits at the top of its class, and if you want to understand how weave, wool and palette place a rug in time, our guide on how to date an Oriental rug walks through the same clues we used here.