3'7" x 5'2" Persian Isfahan Rug | Wool and Silk on Silk | Midnight Blue Medallion with Bird Border

This is a workshop piece in a small format: 3'7" x 5'2" of wool and silk knotted onto a silk foundation, woven in the 2000s and never put into service. The silk warps let the weaver draw a very tight curve, which is why the vine scrolls here turn cleanly instead of stepping, and why the ivory medallion holds a crisp outline against the midnight blue ground. Silk passes through the highlights, so the cream and pale blue elements catch light at a different angle than the wool around them and the field shifts as you walk past it. The pile is even from end to end, the salmon border has kept its full tone, and the ivory fringe is intact on both ends. Fine Persian Isfahan rugs at this scale are usually bought as an accent or a wall piece rather than a floor plan solution, and this one ships with a certificate of authenticity documenting origin, materials and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

A lobed ivory medallion sits dead center, built from concentric rings of small blossoms and finished top and bottom with a stepped pendant and a slim finial. Around it the navy field carries a full arabesque system: split leaves, curling saz foliage, rounded palmettes and 8 petal rosettes, all connected by a thin vine that runs corner to corner without breaking. The 4 spandrels repeat the medallion palette in ivory, each one closed by an angular key motif at the outer corner. The main border is the piece that collectors notice first, a salmon ground filled with birds set between blue lotus palmettes and small flowering sprays, drawn in profile with brown and ivory detailing on the wings. Narrow ivory guard stripes with a running vine frame it on both sides, and a fine barber pole stripe finishes the outer edge.

Color Palette

The field is a deep midnight blue, close to black under low light and clearly blue in daylight, which is what gives the ivory drawing its contrast. Against it sit cream and warm ivory for the medallion, spandrels and vinework, with a buttery gold tone in the medallion center where the silk sits heaviest. Accents run in three directions: a soft turquoise in the rosette centers and leaf tips, a dark oxblood brown in the outlines and small buds, and a muted sage in a few of the leaves. The main border breaks all of it with salmon, a warm dusty peach that reads pink in sunlight and terracotta in the evening, and that band is what lets this rug work next to natural oak floors and cream upholstery rather than fighting them. It is an easy palette for small Persian rugs to place, since the navy anchors and the salmon warms.

Isfahan Origin and Weaving Quality

Isfahan sits in central Persia and has been the reference point for court weaving since the Safavid workshops of the 16th century. The reputation rests entirely on drawing: a curved line, a flowing vine and precise symmetry, none of which survive unless the knot count is high enough to carry them. That is why Isfahan weavers work on a silk foundation, as here, where thinner warps and wefts allow more knots across the same span than cotton ever could. You can see the result in the border birds, where a beak, an eye and individual wing feathers are each resolved in a handful of knots. The pile is a soft, fine wool lifted with silk in the highlights, clipped low so the pattern stays legible. Woven in the 2000s and kept in storage since, it comes to you with full pile and no restoration history.