12' x 14'10" Persian Sarouk Rug | Deep Red Field, Navy Floral Border | 1970s, Excellent Condition

This is a proper room filler, a 12' x 14'10" hand-knotted wool rug woven in the 1970s in the tradition of Persian Sarouk rugs, with a deep red field, a layered central medallion and a wide navy border that frames the whole piece like a picture. The pile is still full and even from end to end, the fringes are original and intact, and the colors have settled into the mellow depth that only 50 years of honest age gives wool. Pieces this large in this condition are getting harder to find, and it sits comfortably among the best oversize Persian rugs we stock in the 12x15 class. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The center holds an 8 lobed star medallion built in layers, a small ivory and blue rosette at the core, then a ring of stepped petals, then 4 navy cartouche shapes set at the diagonals with fan shaped leaves springing out between them. Above and below the medallion sit matching flowering vases with tall sprays rising from them, a classic Sarouk device. The field is filled with detached sprays, curling serrated leaves and small bunches of blossoms, so nothing is left empty but nothing crowds either. Broad blue spandrels sweep into all 4 corners carrying large boteh and palmette forms on scrolling vine. The main border runs a repeating rhythm of pink palmettes and boteh on a navy ground, flanked by narrow guard stripes of small rosettes and angular leaf work.

A Deep Red Field Set Against Navy Blue

The field is a deep red with a cool raspberry cast rather than a brick or orange red, which is exactly what keeps a rug this size from feeling heavy. Against it the border reads almost black at a glance and resolves into a dense indigo navy up close. The drawing between those two poles is where the color really lives: rose pink and dusty salmon in the palmettes, soft sky blue and teal in the spandrels and the medallion core, ivory and oatmeal in the guard stripes and the outlines of the leaves, with small hits of saffron gold and a green that has aged toward olive. The outer selvage returns to red, so the rug closes on the same note it opens with. It is a warm, formal palette that works with dark wood, brass and cream walls.

Sarouk Weaving and Build Quality

Sarouk weaving comes out of the Arak region of central Persia, a group of villages that built their reputation on heavy, tightly packed wool rugs made to be lived on rather than admired from a distance. That is what you have here. The back photograph shows straight, regular rows on a cotton foundation, with the knotting even enough across 14'10" of length that the rug lies flat without waves or pull. The wool is the dense, slightly lustrous fleece Sarouk weavers are known for, and after 50 years the pile still stands up with no thin spots and no repiling. A rug of this weight is a freight item almost everywhere else; here it ships free to all 50 states.