3'6" x 5'4" Persian Isfahan Rug | Ivory All Over Floral | Wool & Silk on Silk, 500 KPSI, Never Used

This is a small piece with big-workshop credentials: a hand-knotted 3'6" x 5'4" Isfahan woven in wool and silk on a silk foundation at roughly 500 knots per square inch. Nothing about it was built for volume. The drawing is fully curvilinear, the outlines are single-knot thin, and the silk passes catch light across the ivory ground as you walk past it. It has never been on a floor, the pile is full and even edge to edge, and the selvedges and ivory fringe are untouched, as the folded-back corner and fringe photos show. Small formats like this are where the finest Persian Isfahan rugs are often at their best, because the weaver can hold court-level detail across the whole field. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity stating origin, materials and weave.

Design and Motifs

There is no central medallion. Instead the ivory field carries a mirrored all over composition: large fan shaped Shah Abbas palmettes in dark navy and wine, split leaf arabesques trailing between them, and thin vine stems that loop and cross without ever colliding. At the exact center sits a small sky blue rosette, and the layout repeats symmetrically above and below it, so the pattern reads the same from either end. Smaller 8 petal rosettes, salmon buds and serrated olive leaves fill the ground between the palmettes, which keeps the ivory from looking empty even at close range. The main red border runs a continuous vine of blue rosettes and gold palmettes, framed by an ivory guard stripe of paired gold cartouche forms and a navy vine stripe on either side. Four corners resolve cleanly, a detail that separates workshop cartoons from village improvisation.

Colors and How They Read in a Room

The field is a warm undyed ivory, closer to cream than white, which is what gives the rug its light. Against it the palette runs cool: inky navy in the palmette hearts, a clear sky blue in the rosettes, and a deep wine red that also fills the main border. The green reads as two tones, an olive gold on the leaf bodies and a softer sage on the curling tendrils. Accents of salmon pink and antique gold appear in the guard bands and flower centers, and small black outlines sharpen every shape. Where the silk sits, mainly in the vine work and leaf highlights, the color shifts noticeably as the light angle changes, so the same rug looks cooler from one side of the room and warmer from the other. Against grey tile or pale hardwood, as photographed, the red border does the framing work and the ivory field keeps the whole thing from feeling heavy in a small space.

Isfahan Origin and Weaving Quality

Isfahan sits in central Persia and has been a weaving capital since the Safavid court workshops of the 16th century. Its reputation rests almost entirely on drawing: the curved line, the flowing vine, the precision of an outline that is only one knot wide. That standard is only achievable at a high knot count, which is why Isfahan workshops build on a silk foundation. Silk warps are thinner and stronger than cotton, so the weaver can pack more knots across the width and hold a fine curve without the design going blocky. At about 500 knots per square inch, this piece is firmly in workshop territory rather than commercial production, and the reverse side shows it: tight, dense, perfectly regular rows with the pattern legible on the back. Wool carries the field for durability and the silk is reserved for highlights, the traditional combination in the best Isfahan work. Buyers comparing small 3x5 Persian rugs will find very few at this level of fineness in an unused condition.