11' x 16'8" Persian Qum Rug | Ivory & Sage Cartouche Panel Field | Fine Kork Wool, Excellent Condition

Qum weavers build their reputation on small, jewel-like pieces, which is exactly why a wool Persian Qum rug at 11' x 16'8" is worth stopping for. This one is a workshop piece from the 2000's, hand-knotted on a cotton foundation in lustrous kork wool, with an all-over field of ivory cartouches floating on a pale sage ground and a deep camel gold border framing all 4 sides. The pile is full and even, the drawing stays crisp from one end of the field to the other, and the condition is perfect with no wear, no repair and no color run. Pieces of this footprint sit comfortably among oversize Persian rugs and will cover a full formal room wall to wall. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity documenting origin, materials and construction.

Design and Motifs

The field is an all-over panel repeat: rows of scalloped ivory cartouches, each outlined in brown arabesque scrollwork and each holding its own small bouquet, set in staggered ranks across the whole 16'8" length. No 2 bouquets read identically. Some are built around a burgundy rosette, some around a blue hyacinth cluster, some around gold and olive blossoms with trailing leaves, and the spaces between the cartouches are packed with scattered flowers, buds and butterflies so that no part of the ground is left empty. The main border is a broad camel gold band of turning vine, palmettes and paired rosettes, held between narrow blue and rose guard stripes and a fine barber-pole minor stripe that reverses direction at each of the 4 corners. Outside that runs an ivory arabesque border with cloud-band scrolls, giving the rug 3 distinct border registers instead of the usual 2. It is a classical Qum drawing executed with a very steady hand.

The Color Story: Ivory, Sage Green, Blue and Burgundy

Ivory carries the rug. The cartouches are a warm cream that catches light differently depending on which end you view from, a property of good kork wool rather than anything applied after weaving. Behind them sits a muted sage green, closer to celadon than to a true green, which keeps the field quiet and lets the flowers do the talking. The bouquets bring the saturation: burgundy red, deep navy, cornflower and sky blue, rose pink, soft lilac, olive, mustard gold and small touches of white. The borders shift the temperature warmer with a rich camel gold ground, outlined in navy and accented with red and blue blossoms, so the frame reads golden while the interior reads cool and airy. Brown vine work ties both zones together. It is a palette that sits well with cream, walnut, brass and muted blue interiors, and it is forgiving in rooms with mixed natural and lamp light.

Qum Weaving and the Rarity of This Size

Qum sits in central Persia, southwest of Tehran, and is the youngest of the great Persian weaving towns, with commercial production beginning only in the 1930's. Having no inherited village style of its own, Qum built its name on execution instead: the finest kork wool and pure silk, tightly controlled workshop weaving, and classical designs borrowed from Isfahan, Kashan and Tabriz and then drawn more precisely than the originals. Rivalry between the town's workshops keeps the standard high. What makes this piece unusual is the scale. Most Qum work is woven small, from scatter sizes up to 8x11, because fine knotting over a long warp is slow and expensive, so an 11' x 16'8" Qum in kork wool represents a serious commitment of loom time. The weave here is dense and regular, the selvages are original and tight, and the back shows clean, even knot rows across the full width.