12' x 17'7" Persian Isfahan Rug | Ivory Field All-Over Floral | 1970s Oversize, Excellent Condition

This is a true palace piece, a 12' x 17'7" hand-knotted Isfahan woven in central Persia in the 1970s and kept in excellent, essentially perfect condition ever since. The ivory field runs uninterrupted from end to end with no central medallion, so the eye travels across the whole 211 inches of length instead of stopping in the middle, which is exactly what you want in a room this large. Fine wool pile on a cotton foundation gives the surface a low, even clip that still shows the drawing crisply after 50 years, and the sides and ends are original with full hand-tied fringe. Rugs this long are the hardest thing to find in good order, and buyers shopping oversize 12x18 Persian rugs will recognise how unusual an intact 1970s workshop weaving of this scale is. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The field is a classic all-over floral composition built on a double system of vines. Thin ochre and brown tendrils carry small rosettes and curling saz leaves, while a heavier red and navy strapwork vine loops through the ground and ties itself into interlaced diamond knots at 4 points around the field, each one clasped by a small gold and sky blue boss. Large serrated palmettes in navy, brick red and olive anchor the rhythm, alternating with lotus blossoms, split leaves and tiny 8 petal flowerheads that fill every gap without crowding. The main border is red, drawn with alternating navy cartouches and gold arabesque scrollwork, and it is framed on both sides by ivory guard bands of connected palmettes and by a fine navy meander stripe. Note how the drawing turns the corners cleanly, with the border pattern resolving instead of being cut off, which is the mark of a properly cartooned workshop weaving rather than a village copy.

The Ivory, Red, Blue and Olive Palette

The ground is a warm ivory, closer to unbleached cream than to stark white, and it carries a soft sheen where the light crosses the pile. Against it the weaver worked 2 distinct reds: a clear tomato red in the vine scroll and the diamond knots, and a deeper brick red that fills the main border and reads almost garnet in low light. The blues are just as deliberate, with a near black indigo used for the outlines, the big palmette hearts and the narrow meander stripes, and a bright sky blue reserved for blossom centers, small leaves and the cool sparkle scattered across the field. Olive and moss green run through the leafwork, and camel, old gold and a pale peach appear in the border cartouches and in the occasional flowerhead. The overall effect is warm and light rather than dark, so a room with cream walls or pale oak floors will take it easily, while the red border gives the whole thing enough weight to hold a large space.

Isfahan Weaving and Workshop Quality

Isfahan sits in central Persia and has been a weaving capital since the Safavid court workshops of the 16th century, and the city's reputation rests entirely on drawing: the curved line, the flowing vine and the precision of the corner resolution, none of which work without a high knot count and a disciplined cartoon. This piece carries that tradition at an unusually large scale. Weaving a rug 17'7" long means a loom wide enough for 12 feet of warp and a team working the same cartoon for a very long time, with the risk that any drift in the drawing shows up over that distance. Here the field repeat stays true from end to end and the border marches evenly around all 4 sides. The wool is fine and tightly packed, the pile is clipped low so the pattern stays legible, and the back shows a clean, regular knot grid on a cotton foundation. If you want the background on the city and its workshops, our complete guide to Isfahan rugs covers how these weavings are judged.