11' x 17'9" Persian Sarough Rug | Antique Open Red Field, Ivory Medallion | Palace Size

A rug at 11' x 17'9" is a room in its own right, and this antique Sarough carries the scale without crowding it. The weaver left the red field almost entirely open, placing one ivory and sage medallion at the center with a small pendant above and below, then packed all the drawing into the corners and the deep navy border. That restraint is what makes the piece work in a big room: you see the wool itself, a lustrous hand-spun pile that has softened and gained sheen with age, rather than a wall of pattern. The open-field treatment with delicate floral sprays shows the Kerman influence that reached the Arak workshops, while the heavy handle, the cotton foundation and the thick clipped pile are pure Sarough. Condition is excellent, with even pile across the full 213" length and intact ivory fringe at both ends. Background on the type is in our guide to Persian Sarough rugs, and every rug we ship includes a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The center medallion is built around an 8 petal rosette in red and ivory set on a soft green disc, ringed by curled sage palmettes and clusters of small pink and cream blossoms on a black ground. Slim pendants rise and fall from it, each ending in a fan of flowers, and four loose floral sprays drift into the open field at a generous distance from the center. The corner spandrels are the opposite of that restraint: dense scrolling arabesques in teal, salmon and ivory, outlined in navy, sweeping in from all 4 corners so the field reads as a cartouche shape. The main border is navy, drawn with alternating palmettes, cupped rosettes and split-leaf vines in rust, gold, green and ivory. Two ivory guard stripes with a running vine and a pair of narrow reciprocal stripes frame it on either side, keeping the 17'9" run of border crisp rather than heavy.

A Study in Tomato Red, Navy and Teal

The field is a natural madder red that sits between tomato and brick, gently abrashed across the width so the surface breathes instead of reading flat. Against it, the main border is a near-black navy that anchors the whole rug and makes the reds glow warmer than they would on their own. The middle tones are what distinguish this piece: a chalky sea-green teal through the spandrels and the inner guard, a soft sage in the medallion leaves, and salmon rose in the corner grounds, all balanced by a buttery ivory that outlines nearly every motif. Smaller touches of old gold, moss green and dark aubergine appear in the border flowers. Undyed ivory fringe finishes both ends. In daylight the palette leans coral and green, under lamplight it deepens toward burgundy and ink.

Sarough Weaving in Central Persia

Sarough is a village north of Arak in central Persia, and the name came to cover the finest weaving of that whole district. The weavers there work on a cotton warp and weft with a heavy wool pile, beaten down hard so the rug lies flat and takes generations of traffic without thinning, which is exactly why so many antique Sarougs from the 1920s and 1930s are still in daily use. The knotting here is even and tight enough to hold the curved outlines of the medallion and the fine vine work in the guard stripes, visible on the back where the pattern reads almost as clearly as it does on the face. Pieces woven to a full palace scale like this one were commissioned, not made on speculation, which is why they turn up so rarely among oversize Persian rugs in original condition.