13' x 18'5" Persian Kermanshah Rug | Antique Palace Medallion | Multi-Color Wool Pile

This is a genuine palace piece: 13' x 18'5" of antique Persian Kermanshah weaving, hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation with a 3/8" pile that still stands full and even across the whole surface. Rugs at this scale were commissioned for rooms that could hold them, and the drawing is built accordingly, with a single commanding medallion, a deep indigo field of arabesque vinework, and a border system seven bands wide that frames the field the way a picture frame carries a painting. The wool has aged into the soft, slightly waxy sheen that only decades of use and good lanolin produce, and the colors have settled without going flat. If you are shopping oversized Persian rugs, this one covers ground that very few antiques reach. It ships with a certificate of authenticity documenting origin, materials and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a large lobed ivory medallion drawn over a rose red inner field, with a small olive green rosette marking the exact midpoint and tiers of saffron, sky blue and burgundy blossoms radiating out from it. Slender pendants finish the medallion top and bottom, each one outlined in light blue and navy so the silhouette reads cleanly from across the room. Beyond the red ground the field turns deep indigo and fills with curling arabesque vines, palmettes and split leaves that climb into apricot corner spandrels holding their own cartouches and flower vases. The border runs to 7 bands: a wide crimson main border of alternating palmettes and rosettes, ivory vine stripes on either side of it, and narrow navy guards carrying small 8 petal rosettes all the way to the selvage. All 4 corners resolve the border turn correctly, which on a rug this long is a real test of the cartoon and the weavers who followed it.

Rose Red, Indigo and Apricot: The Color Story

The palette is broad but disciplined. The inner field reads as a warm rose red, closer to raspberry and old brick than to a modern fire engine tone, and it gains subtle horizontal movement from natural abrash where the dye lots shift. Against it sits an ivory medallion that has mellowed to a light honey cream, outlined in two weights of blue: a soft sky blue for the inner contour and a near black indigo for the final line. The surrounding field is that same deep indigo, which makes the apricot and saffron orange of the spandrels and inner border glow the way they do in the close-up photographs. Scattered through the vinework are olive green, moss, muted gold, terracotta, soft mauve and a clear pale blue that repeats in the guard stripes. Under lamplight the reds and apricots come forward; in daylight the indigo and ivory dominate, so the rug effectively reads two different ways through the day.

Kermanshah Weaving and Quality

Kermanshah is the trade name given to the most finely drawn floral weaving of the Kerman tradition in western and southeastern Persia, and it has always denoted the top shelf of that group rather than a rough village product. You can see why on the back: an even, tightly packed knot line with no ridging or pulling, sharp definition on curves that lesser looms turn into steps, and a straight, true rectangle held over more than 18 feet of length. The wool is hand-spun and full of lanolin, which is why the pile still feels dense at 3/8" after generations. If you want to understand how weavers, dyes and wear patterns combine to date an antique Oriental rug, this piece is a textbook example, and it belongs with the very largest oversize 12x18 Persian rugs we carry.