13' x 18'8" Persian Nain Rug | Midnight Blue & Ivory Wool & Silk | Oversize Medallion

This is a full palace format piece, 13 feet wide and 18 feet 8 inches long, woven in wool with silk detailing on a cotton foundation. It is one of the cleanest examples of the classic Persian Nain rug formula we carry: a midnight blue ground, a large ivory medallion floating dead center, and ivory corner spandrels that pull the eye outward to a wide ivory main border. Rooms this large are hard to dress, and among oversize Persian rugs a Nain of this scale is the quiet, formal answer rather than a loud one. The pile is deep and unworn, the fringes are original and even, and the rug ships with a certificate of authenticity documenting origin, materials and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

The center is built in rings. A small rosette core sits inside a starburst of pointed petals, then a band of shield shaped palmettes, then a scalloped ivory medallion edged in fine dark outlining, and finally a halo of leafy sprays that dissolve into the blue field. Around all of that runs a continuous arabesque of thin vine, tiny five petal blossoms, curled saz leaves and Shah Abbasi palmettes, drawn with the curved, unbroken line that Nain workshops are known for. The 4 corners repeat the medallion vocabulary in ivory spandrels, so the layout reads symmetrically from every side. The border system is layered: a wide ivory main band of alternating palmettes and scrolling leaves, flanked by camel colored floral guards and narrow blue ribbon stripes, with a final blue outer guard framing the whole field. Close up, as in the corner photograph, the silk is used exactly where it should be, lifting the pale flower heads and vine tips so they catch light against matte wool.

The Midnight Blue and Ivory Palette

The field is a deep midnight blue, close to ink in the detail shots and slightly softer under room light, which is what makes the ivory drawing read so crisply. The ivory itself is not flat white: it moves between warm cream in the medallion and a cooler, chalkier tone through the main border. Between those two poles sit the secondary colors that give the rug its life, a soft turquoise used inside the palmette hearts, a pale sky blue in the vine work and guard stripes, and a warm camel to old gold in the leaf forms and the border bands. Small touches of chocolate brown and near black outline the flowers and keep the pattern from blurring at a distance. In a big room the overall impression is cool and formal, blue and ivory, with the gold accents warming it just enough to sit comfortably with wood floors, antique brass and leather.

Nain Weaving and Quality

Nain is a desert town in central Persia that turned from fine wool cloth to rug weaving in the 20th century, and it brought a textile maker's discipline with it. Nain weavers work on a cotton foundation with tightly spun wool and silk accents, and they hold a very fine, even knot that lets a designer draw curves instead of steps. The back of this rug, shown against a 12 inch ruler, is tight and regular, with small knot nodes and perfectly straight rows, which is what allows the vine to bend the way it does in the field. A piece 13 feet by 18 feet 8 inches on a loom of this fineness represents years of work by a team of weavers, and it is the sort of Nain that was woven for a specific large room rather than for stock. The wool has a clean, low sheen, the selvages are firm, and the rug lies flat and square.