3' x 19'9" Persian Tribal Runner | Wool | Rust Red and Navy

A long, narrow runner measuring Width: 3' x Length: 19'9", hand-knotted in Persia with a wool pile. Six large medallions run end to end down the centre, each one a navy hexagon ringed in stepped ivory and banana yellow and set against a rust red ground. Seen from one end, as in the lengthways photographs, the repeat reads as a single continuous chain rather than six separate units.

The design

Each medallion is built in three layers: a navy centre carrying paired red hooked motifs, small white diamonds and little triangle clusters, then a sawtooth collar in red and yellow, then broad ivory and banana yellow panels with zigzag outlines that step outward to meet the red field. Between the medallions the red ground is left mostly open, broken only by small drawn motifs that read almost as script. The main border is ivory, filled with angular vines, rosettes and star forms, and it is held between narrower red bands of white-centred boxes and an outer navy and white sawtooth stripe. The drawing is firmly in the tribal idiom, worked in straight lines and counted steps rather than curves.

The colour

The field is a rust red, slightly brick where the light crosses the pile and lighter in places along the edges. Against it the medallion centres are a deep navy, close to black in the outlines and clearly blue in the open ground. The banana yellow is a true buttery yellow, not gold, and it does most of the work of separating the navy from the red. Ivory carries the main border and the stepped panels, and the ribbed look of those panels in the close-up photographs comes from fine red lines drawn across the cream.

The making

Hand-knotted in wool on a long, narrow loom in Persia, with ivory fringe at both ends and a dark overcast selvedge. The table dates it to the 1970's and gives the condition as Excellent- Perfect. The pile still stands well, and the back photograph shows even, regular knotting with the pattern legible from the reverse.