11' x 18'6" Persian Sarouk Rug | Open Field Kerman Design | 1950s Oversize

This is a true palace piece, 11 feet wide and more than 18 feet long, woven in the 1950s and kept in excellent condition with an even 3/8" wool pile from end to end. The drawing is the classic open field formula: a wide unbroken coral ground carrying a single lobed floral medallion, with dense flowering corner brackets pulling the eye back toward the center. Hand-knotted on a cotton foundation, it belongs with the genuinely oversize Persian rugs that are hard to find with this much remaining pile and this little restoration. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming origin, materials and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

The field is left deliberately open, which is the hardest thing a weaver can attempt at this scale because there is nowhere to hide an uneven knot or a wandering line. At the center sits a black-ground lobed medallion filled with pale green arabesque leaves, coral rosettes and small blue blossoms, finished with a cusped pendant at each end and a delicate cypress-like spray above and below. The corner brackets are a different world entirely: layered palmettes, curling serrated leaves and full-blown roses packed edge to edge in the drawing style associated with Persian Kerman rugs. Framing all of it is a wide black main border of linked palmette cartouches on a salmon ground, held between blue and ivory guard stripes and a fine reciprocal outer stripe, with the arched cartouche at the center of each long side visible in the detail photographs.

A Coral Field Against Navy, Ivory and Soft Green

The dominant color is a coral rose, warm and slightly dusty, with the natural abrash that comes from hand-dyed wool moving gently across the open ground as the light changes. Against it, the spandrel field reads a deep indigo blue that carries the flower heads in ivory, pale celadon green and a clear medium blue. The main border drops to a near black ground, so the salmon and rose palmettes inside it appear to glow. Small touches of olive and soft brown outline the leaves and vines, while the guard stripes alternate cream and navy with tiny four-petal rosettes in blue and red. The overall effect is a warm rug rather than a bright one, and it sits comfortably with mahogany and walnut furniture, antique brass, and off-white or oatmeal walls.

Origin and Weaving Quality

Sarouk is a weaving town in the Arak region of west central Persia with a long reputation for heavy, tightly packed wool rugs built to be used rather than admired from a distance. Persian Sarouk rugs are known for that combination of a dense, slightly heavy handle and a soft, lustrous local wool that takes dye beautifully and burnishes with age instead of dulling. This piece shows it clearly: the knots are firm and regular across a 132" width, the selvages are original and intact, the ivory fringe is clean, and the pile still stands at a full 3/8" with no low areas through the open field. Weaving a rug this size on a single loom is a multi-year commitment for a village workshop, which is why surviving 11 x 19 Sarouks in this condition are far scarcer than the 9x12 sizes.