2'8" x 15'4" Persian Karajeh Runner | Wool | Red

A long, narrow runner measuring 2'8" x 15'4", hand-knotted in Persia with a 3/8" wool pile. The Karajeh design puts a single column of hooked medallions down the centre of a red field, and at this length the column repeats enough times to read as a rhythm rather than a centrepiece. The condition is recorded as perfect.

Design

Larger hexagonal medallions alternate with smaller stepped ones all the way along the field, each one carrying hooked arms at its waist and a small cross or quartered centre. The ground between them is filled edge to edge with angular fillers: comb forms, barbed triangles, little hooked brackets and shapes that read almost like block letters, drawn freehand so no two repeats line up exactly. The main border is a dark ground carrying round rosettes and star flowerheads at regular intervals, held between ivory guard stripes with a reciprocal sawtooth running along the inner edge and a barber-pole twist on the outer.

Colour

The field is a madder red that sits close to brick in the full-length view and lifts toward a softer terracotta in the close shots. Against it the medallions are worked in ivory, dark indigo, olive green and mustard gold, with salmon pink and pale sky blue in the quartered centres. The main border is indigo dark enough to read as near-black at a distance, which pulls the red in and keeps the busy field from spilling past the ivory guard lines.

Making

Hand-knotted, like everything we sell, with a 3/8" wool pile clipped short enough that the outlines of the fillers stay crisp. The folded corner in the last photograph shows the back, where the pattern comes through clearly and the knotting runs evenly across the narrow width. The ivory warp ends are finished as fringe.