3'4" x 15' Persian Nain Runner Rug | Ivory Field & Repeating Star Medallions | Wool & Silk Pile

Runners this long are hard to find in Nain quality, and harder still in this condition. The rug measures a full 15 feet with a narrow 40" width, which is the proportion a long hallway runner needs when a pair of shorter pieces would leave an awkward seam in the middle. The pile is fine wool with silk used to outline the drawing, knotted on a cotton foundation in the 2000s, and the surface still has its original clipped height with no wear, no repair and no color loss. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity that records origin, materials and size, so the piece is documented before it reaches your floor.

Design and Motifs

The field carries 6 full medallions set one after another down the length, each one a cruciform frame of deep red lobes closing around an 8 point star rosette. Inside the frame, small squares of camel and cream are filled with a fine diaper lattice, and each lobe holds its own blossom and vine. Between the medallions sit paired floral sprays and delicate leaf clusters, while half medallions and stepped spandrels press in from both sides so the ivory ground reads as a continuous panel sequence rather than a repeat that was cut to fit. The main border is a navy ground of palmettes, serrated leaves and curling vine, flanked by a fine checkerboard minor stripe and light blue guard bands. At each end the border closes with an arcade of arched panels containing flowering vases, a detail weavers reserve for pieces where the ends will actually be seen.

A Study in Ivory, Indigo and Cherry Red

The ground is a warm ivory, closer to unbleached cream than white, and it is left genuinely open, which is the hardest thing to weave cleanly and the reason this rug looks so calm from a distance. Against it the medallions read cherry red at the center and darken toward burgundy at the outer lobes. The borders are indigo navy, almost black where the vine crosses it, and the whole palette is lifted by sky blue and turquoise: in the star rosettes, in the guard stripes, and in the small blossoms scattered through the field. Supporting tones include camel, soft tan, pale rose, olive green in the leaves and a rust brown along the serrated medallion edges. The silk outlines sit slightly proud of the wool and take the light differently, so the blues in particular shift between pale and vivid as you walk the length of the runner.

Nain, Central Persia, and Why the Weave Matters

Nain sits on the edge of the central Persian desert, a short drive east of Isfahan, and its looms adopted the Isfahan tradition of curved, drawn line work on a very high knot count. That inheritance is what you are paying for here: the arc of each medallion lobe is smooth, the lattice squares hold their geometry at a scale of a few millimeters, and the silk outlining keeps every motif crisp against the ivory. Anyone comparing weaves and la counts will find the background in our complete guide to Nain rugs useful before deciding. Because the town never worked in coarse grades, a Nain runner of this length represents months on a single loom with the drawing repeated without drift, and that discipline is visible from one end of the 15 feet to the other.