4'5" x 7' Antique Persian Sarouk Ferahan Rug | Ivory Field, Navy Medallion | Circa 1900s

Small antiques like this one are the pieces dealers tend to keep. Woven in the early 1900s, this Persian Sarouk Ferahan rug measures 4'5" x 7' and has the drawing discipline of a workshop piece with the honest wool of a village loom. The pile has worn down over more than a century to an even, glossy 1/4", low enough that the pattern reads almost like a drawing, with no thin spots, no repairs and no patched areas across the field. At this scale it lands neatly within the 5x7 Persian rugs range, the size that works in front of a sofa, at the foot of a bed or under a desk. It ships with our certificate of authenticity documenting origin, age, materials and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

The layout is the classic Ferahan formula: a deep indigo lobed medallion set on an open ivory field, with pendants reaching toward each end and stepped navy corner spandrels closing the composition. Inside the medallion, 4 large sky blue cloudband cartouches turn in mirrored pairs around the center, each one filled with a salmon and rose blossom over a small brick red panel. The ivory field is not repeated stencil work: it carries loosely spaced floral sprays, tulips, carnations, serrated leaves and 8 petal rosettes, drawn in mirror image across the long axis so each side answers the other without being mechanical. The corners hold gold panels with blue palmette rosettes, and the wide rust main border runs a march of diamond medallions and rosettes between narrow reciprocal guard stripes. Close photography shows how fine the outlining is, single knot ivory lines defining every petal and stem, which is why the drawing still reads clearly at this low pile height.

The Ivory, Indigo and Rust Palette

The field is a warm ivory that has mellowed toward soft champagne gold with age, brighter near the center and a shade deeper along the sides, the gentle abrash that natural dyes and hand-spun wool produce over a century of light. Against it, the medallion and spandrels read as near black indigo in shade and true midnight blue in direct light, a depth that only repeated indigo dipping achieves. The cartouches shift through sky blue and denim blue, and the flower heads inside them move from coral to salmon to a faded rose pink, the softened madder tones collectors look for. The main border is a warm rust terracotta, more brick than crimson, carrying small accents of olive green, sea green leafwork, gold ochre and touches of clean ivory. Blues and greens tally to a rich but restrained palette that sits comfortably with oak floors, walnut furniture and cream walls.

Ferahan Weaving in the Sarouk District

Ferahan is the plain north of Arak in west central Persia, the district that also gave the market Sarouk, and rugs from these villages are grouped and sold together as Sarouk Ferahan. The best examples were woven before the 1920s, when the weavers still worked to their own taste rather than to export orders, using local hand-spun wool on a cotton foundation and a single weft weave that keeps the handle thin and supple. Quality here is judged by drawing and dye rather than by raw knot count: the curved line has to be articulate, the borders have to turn the corner cleanly, and the ivory ground has to stay open enough to let the medallion breathe. This piece does all 3. The even low pile, the intact ends and sides and the oxidized dark outlines in the corner work are exactly the traits used to date an antique Oriental rug to the turn of the last century.