4'10" x 13' Persian Karaja Runner Rug | 7 Linked Geometric Medallions | Semi-Antique, Excellent Condition

Most runners are 2'6" or 3' wide and get lost in a wide corridor. This one measures 4'10" x 13', which is wide enough to read as a proper rug while still running the length of a long passage, a stair landing, a galley kitchen or the walking side of a large bedroom. It is a semi-antique village piece from Karaja in northwest Persia, hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation, with 7 medallions marching end to end down a maroon field. The pile is still even and full across the whole length, the sides and ends are original, and the drawing has the slight wobble of a rug woven from memory rather than from a cartoon. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity listing origin, materials and measurements.

Design and Motifs

The field carries 7 medallions in strict alternation, which is the Karaja signature. Four of them are stepped, cross-armed star medallions with an 8 petal rosette at the center, and three are hooked octagons outlined in ivory, the middle one set on a saffron orange ground so the eye lands on the center of the runner. Each medallion is anchored by small hooked brackets and surrounded by a dense scatter of angular leaves, cypress forms, rosettes, combs and tiny animal and bird figures, the kind of free drawing that belongs to true village work rather than a workshop. The main navy border is packed with a herringbone of rosettes, diamonds and latch-hooked panels, framed by narrow ivory and rose guard stripes that run clean to the ends. Collectors who look for this sort of drawing will find more of it among our geometric Persian rugs.

A Maroon Field With Navy, Ivory and Saffron

The ground is maroon, a deep wine red that in the detail photographs breaks into two tones, a brick red in the open field and a darker mulberry where the drawing crowds together. Against it the borders go almost black navy, so the field looks lit from within. Ivory does the structural work: it outlines the octagon medallions, draws the guard stripes and picks out individual rosettes and the small figures in the border. Rust and saffron supply the heat, strongest in the orange halo around the central octagon and in the little flame shaped leaves scattered through the field. Smaller touches of sky blue, teal, rose pink and soft brown appear in single knots and keep the surface moving rather than flat. Because the base is a dark red, this is a forgiving rug for high traffic; it suits hallway runner rugs duty in a house where shoes stay on.

Karaja: A Village Weave From Northwest Persia

Karaja is a small village in the Azerbaijan province of northwest Persia, in the hill country northeast of Tabriz and within the Heriz weaving district. The looms there have produced one recognizable product for well over a century: angular, repeating medallion rugs in runner and small room sizes, woven on cotton with the hard, long-staple highland wool of the region. Karaja weavers do not chase knot counts. The value is in the wool and the construction, a moderate knot count with a thick, tightly beaten pile that wears down slowly and evenly instead of thinning in patches, which is why pieces of this age still show full pile from end to end. The Turkish knot and the heavy beat-down also give the runner body, so it lies flat down a corridor and does not creep. On this example the ends are still original and the selvages are intact, which is the first thing a dealer checks on a semi-antique runner and the hardest thing to fake.