5'1" x 8'10" Persian Kerman Rug | Ivory Field, Seafoam Garden Border | Perfect Condition

This 5'1" x 8'10" Persian Kerman is the quiet, light-toned version of the Kerman formula: an open ivory ground, a slim vertical medallion with matching pendants, and a wide seafoam garden border carrying rows of flowering plants. It is hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation, the pile is full and even across the whole field, and the back photograph shows a tidy, regular knot line with no repairs, reweaves or open areas. At 5 feet 1 inch by 8 feet 10 inches it lands in the most useful room size there is, large enough to carry a seating group or a table, small enough to move between rooms as a home changes. Every rug we ship, this one included, leaves Freeport with a certificate of authenticity recording origin, materials and measurements.

Design and Motifs

The field runs as a single unbroken ivory plain, drawn with thin brown vinework that climbs from the base of the rug and throws off small carnations, rosettes and sprays of sky blue leaf forms. Down the center axis sits a slender lobed medallion with a gold cartouche at its heart and a black square rosette set inside it, framed by curling rose red serrated leaves. Above and below, two rust red pendants step away from the medallion, each one shaped like a lantern with a cream reserve at its center and paired blue florets at the shoulders, and the sequence repeats at smaller scale toward each end so the field reads as a vertical procession rather than a single blot of color. The wide inner border is the piece's real signature: instead of an abstract vine it is drawn as a garden row, upright flowering stems with pink eight petal rosettes, cream tulips and dark red buds, each plant growing from its own ground line. That garden band is framed by a reciprocal sawtooth stripe, then an outer rust red band of palmettes and scrolling brown vine, then narrow ivory guard bands at both edges. All 4 corners resolve cleanly, which tells you the weaver followed a properly drawn cartoon rather than improvising to the finish.

Colors in This Kerman

The ground is a warm ivory, closer to unbleached cream than to white, and it takes light without glare, which is what keeps a pale rug of this size from looking cold. Against it the main border is a soft seafoam, a muted green that tips toward blue depending on the light, and it is the most unusual note in the rug: Kerman borders are normally red or navy, so this pale blue green reads as far more modern than the drawing behind it. The reds do the heavy work, a rust red on the outer border and a slightly cooler rose red in the medallion and pendants, with a deep burgundy appearing in a few of the border flower heads. Supporting colors are numerous but small: gold and butter yellow in the medallion ground, olive green in the serrated leaves, sky blue and cornflower in the florets, salmon and shell pink in the rosettes, brown in the stems, and ink navy used as a fine outline that sharpens every element. The close-up photographs show all of these tones in the same frame, so you can see how the palette stays low in contrast overall while still holding plenty of detail at floor level.

Kerman Weaving and Origin

Kerman sits in the southeast of Persia, far from Tabriz and Isfahan, and its weavers built a reputation on floral drawing and on borders treated as gardens rather than as frames. The town has woven for export since the 19th century, which is why Kerman work is often lighter in palette than central Persian city rugs, and why open ivory grounds like this one are part of its tradition instead of an exception. The weave here is city work: a cotton warp and weft, a symmetrical and tightly packed knot line visible on the reverse, straight selvedges and hand-tied ivory fringe at both ends, all of which give the rug a firm, flat handle that will lie down without buckling. Wool from the region takes dye deeply and wears slowly, and the pile on this piece still stands full to the tip, with the pattern crisp right to the outer guard band. If you are comparing pieces from this region, our full selection of Persian Kerman rugs shows how much variation exists within one weaving town.