2'10" x 18'10" Persian Hamedan Runner Rug | Repeating Boteh Field | Excellent Condition

Runners this long are not made on speculation, they are made for a specific corridor, and at 2'10" x 18'10" this hand-knotted Persian Hamedan was woven to carry a hallway from one end of a house to the other. The weaver held a single repeating boteh motif across all 226 inches of the field without the drawing drifting or the red ground shifting tone, which is the real test in a piece this long. The pile is 3/8" wool on a cotton foundation, still full and even underfoot, and the condition is excellent. If you are measuring a long hallway runner rug and have been finding nothing past 12 feet, this is the length you have been looking for. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The field is a classic all over boteh design, the small teardrop with a bent tip that the West later borrowed and renamed paisley. Each boteh sits in a diagonal lattice, tilting the same direction row after row, so the eye travels down the runner rather than stopping anywhere in the middle. There is no medallion and no central event, which is exactly right for a 19 foot corridor piece where only a few feet are visible at a time. Framing it are 3 bands: a narrow reciprocal edge stripe, a wide ivory main border carrying a connected vine of curling leaves and small rosettes, and dark guard stripes on either side that pull the whole composition tight. The ends finish with the same ivory vine turning the corner, and the selvedges and fringe are intact in the photographs.

A Warm Red Ground With Ivory and Navy

The ground is a warm madder red that leans slightly toward tomato in direct light and settles into a deeper brick in shade, the kind of red Persian rug color that reads as warm rather than loud. Inside each boteh the wool shifts between dark indigo, soft camel and rose, so the motifs never flatten into a single printed-looking shape. The main border is ivory, almost a soft cream, and that lightness is what keeps a long red runner from feeling heavy in a narrow space. Near-black navy outlines the border and the guard stripes, with small accents of pale blue-green and gold appearing in the vine. Subtle abrash, the natural tonal variation that comes from hand-dyed wool batches, moves gently along the length and is a mark of genuine village dyeing.

Hamedan Weaving in Western Persia

Hamedan sits in the Zagros foothills of western Persia and anchors the single largest weaving region in the country, hundreds of villages working on village looms rather than in city ateliers. The wool from these highland flocks is coarse, springy and high in lanolin, and Hamedan weavers use it the way it wants to be used: a sturdy single-weft knot on a cotton warp, a moderate knot count, and a pile left with enough height to take real traffic. That is why Hamedan runners survive hallway duty for decades while finer city weaves wear thin at the pivot points. The boteh repeat here reflects the Saraband tradition from just south of Hamedan, absorbed into the local village repertoire and woven in this part of Persia for well over a century. Nothing about this piece is decorative only, it was built to be walked on.