11' x 17' Persian Isfahan Rug | Red Field with Navy Star Medallion | Oversize, Excellent Condition

Very few handmade pieces are woven at 11' x 17', and fewer still hold their drawing that steady across 187 square feet. This one does. A navy star medallion anchors the center of a deep red field, ivory pendants run off it north and south, and a wide ivory border frames the whole floor with paisley and palmette cartouches. The pile is a dense 3/8" wool on a cotton foundation, hand-knotted in the curved, flowing style that Persian Isfahan rugs built their name on. Condition is excellent, the pile even end to end, and the rug ships with a certificate of authenticity. Oversize weights normally attract a freight surcharge; here the rug ships free to all 50 states.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a 16 point navy star medallion outlined in warm brown, filled with red and rose rosettes, small palmettes and slender olive leaves that rotate cleanly around a single lotus at the core. From it, ivory cusped pendants reach toward each end. The red field around the medallion is not left open: it carries a full all-over program of Shah Abbas palmettes, feathery serrated leaves, split arabesques and fine scrolling vines that meet the medallion without crowding it. Light blue spandrels fill the 4 corners with ivory vinework. The main ivory border alternates large boteh with lobed palmette cartouches, and it is held in place by narrow red and navy guard stripes, 3 on each side of the main band.

The Red, Ivory and Indigo Palette

The field red is a true clear red, warm rather than orange, with the slight tonal movement across the surface that only wool dyed in small lots gives. Against it the medallion reads as a deep indigo navy, nearly ink in the shadows and distinctly blue where the light hits the pile. The border is a soft unbleached ivory, warm enough to keep the rug from looking stark, and the spandrels step down into a pale sky blue that lightens the 4 corners. Secondary colors do the detailed work: rose pink in the rosettes, olive and sage in the leaves, chestnut brown in the outlines, plus small touches of cream and slate blue in the border flowers. It is a classic formal palette that sits comfortably with mahogany, walnut and warm plaster walls.

Isfahan Weaving and Oversize Format

Isfahan sits in central Persia and has been a weaving capital since the Safavid workshops of the 16th century. Its reputation rests on drawing: the curved line, the continuous vine, the exact repeat of a motif on both sides of a center axis. That kind of precision only survives at a high knot count and on a tight cotton foundation, which is exactly what the reverse of this rug shows, with small square knots and crisp motif edges visible from the back. Weaving that discipline over a 17 foot length is workshop work, done on a large fixed loom over a long period. Buyers shopping oversize Persian rugs will know how rarely this scale comes up with the pile still full.