12' x 23' Persian Kerman Lavar Rug | Ivory Floral Field with Blue Medallion | 1940s Oversize

This is a room-specific commission from the 1940s, woven in southeast Persia in the Lavar drawing that Kerman weavers reserved for their best work. At 12' x 23' it is longer than most houses have wall, which is exactly why pieces like this survive in estates, libraries and long formal salons rather than in average living rooms. The ivory wool field carries a turquoise pendant medallion and an unbroken carpet of small floral sprays, and the pile is still even from end to end after roughly 80 years. It ships with a certificate of authenticity, and it belongs in the small group of genuinely oversize Persian rugs that were hand-knotted in a single piece.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a lobed turquoise medallion outlined in raspberry, filled with tiny rosettes and ivory scrollwork, with scrolled pendants reaching up and down the long axis. Around it the ivory ground is covered with detached bouquets: rose clusters, bellflower sprays, tall blossoming branches and small leafy vines, drawn loosely enough that no two areas repeat exactly. Each end of the field closes with an arched cartouche panel and a hanging vase of flowers, a device Kerman designers used to give a very long rug a clear top and bottom. The salmon pink inner band is scattered with single blooms, and the wide teal main border runs a continuous scrolling vine of palmettes and roses, interrupted at the 4 corners by deep red corner medallions. Narrow guard stripes of small buds frame the whole layout.

A Pastel Palette Built on Ivory, Sky Blue and Rose

The field is a warm ivory with a faint golden cast, the kind of cream that reads as light rather than white and keeps a huge floor from feeling heavy. Against it the medallion and main border shift between sky blue and a deeper teal, the strongest color statement in the rug and the reason the medallion still holds a 23 foot length together. The flowers run through raspberry and rose pink into soft salmon and blush, with leaves in sage, olive and a darker emerald that grounds the pastels. Camel and tan scrollwork links the bouquets, and fine navy outlines sharpen the drawing where the tones would otherwise blur. The red corner medallions in the border are the only deep saturated note, and they read as accents rather than as a competing color. Eight decades have mellowed the whole palette into something quiet and very easy to decorate around.

Kerman Weaving and the Lavar Drawing

Kerman sits in southeast Persia and has produced floral court-style weaving for centuries, with the finest examples historically associated with Lavar, also written Ravar, the town north of the city. The Lavar name describes a standard of drawing rather than a village workshop: finer knotting, smaller and more naturalistic flowers, and a light ground that leaves room for the botany to show. This piece has the signature Kerman traits, a densely flowered ivory field, pictorial floral borders and an unusually refined vine line, worked in soft local wool on a cotton foundation. Weaving something 23 feet long meant a purpose-built loom and a team working the same cartoon for a long stretch of time, and the consistency of the field from one end to the other shows it was done properly. If you want to understand how pieces from this period are placed, our guide on how to date an Oriental rug covers the markers we use.