11'6" x 12'6" Persian Mahal Sarouk Rug | All Over Herati and Boteh Field | Excellent Condition

Very few handmade rugs come this close to square, and that is the first thing you notice about this one. At 11'6" x 12'6" it belongs with the oversize Persian rugs that were woven for rooms with real proportions, and its near square footprint solves the problem of a wide seating area or a big square great room where a standard 9x12 always looks stranded. The pile is 3/8" wool on a cotton foundation, hand-knotted throughout, with a dense tomato red field carrying an unbroken all over pattern from selvage to selvage. Condition is excellent, the pile is even, the ends and sides are sound, and the rug ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming it as a genuine hand-knotted Persian piece.

Design and Motifs

The field is a true all over design with no medallion, built from staggered rows of 8 petal rosettes set inside lobed cartouches, each one ringed by curling boteh. The boteh, the teardrop paisley that Persian weavers have drawn for centuries, alternates in direction row by row so the eye keeps moving across the surface rather than settling in one place. Between the rosettes sit small diagonal vine links, tulip heads and tiny 4 square checkerboard fillers, the kind of secondary drawing that separates a considered Sarouk cartoon from a hurried one. The main ivory border runs a procession of large palmettes and fan shaped flower heads on a scrolling stem, flanked by narrow guard stripes of running vine and reciprocal tendrils. Every corner resolves cleanly, which tells you the weavers planned the pattern to the width rather than truncating it at the ends.

A Tomato Red Field Framed in Ivory

The ground reads as a warm tomato red, brighter and more open than the oxblood tones you see on many central Persian pieces, with a faint tonal movement through the field that comes from natural variation in the dye lots. Against it the palette is deliberately cool: deep navy and indigo on the larger rosette outlines, a clear sky blue in the flower centers, soft teal touches in the leaf tips. The warm side of the palette is carried by rose pink, salmon and a chalky ivory, with camel and tan appearing in the border flower heads and in the shading of the boteh. Dark brown and near black outlines give every motif a crisp edge and keep the busy field legible from across a room. The ivory main border, still bright and clean, throws the red into relief and makes the rug read lighter and larger on the floor than a dark bordered piece of the same size would.

Mahal Sarouk Weaving in Central Persia

Mahal and Sarouk are neighbours in the Arak region of central Persia, and the two traditions have borrowed from each other for well over a century. Mahal weaving is known for generous room and oversize formats on a sturdy cotton foundation with a full wool pile, while the Sarouk cartoon brings the tighter floral drawing and the disciplined repeat you see across this field. Put together, as they are here, you get a rug built to be walked on for generations that still carries workshop grade pattern work. The wool is the real asset: springy, lanolin rich highland fleece that takes red and ivory dye beautifully and burnishes rather than flattens under traffic. If you want the full background on how these cartoons developed and how to judge a good one, our Persian Sarouk rugs guide walks through the drawing, the weave and the regional differences in detail.