5'2" x 12' Persian Shirvan Rug | Ivory Field with Latch Hook Medallions | Old, Excellent Condition

This is an older hand-knotted Persian rug in the Shirvan design, woven at 5'2" x 12' in the long gallery format that fits a room too narrow for a standard 6x9 and too wide for most Persian runner rugs. The pile is wool at 3/8", cut short and worn in evenly over decades of use, which is why the drawing reads crisp and the wool has the dry, waxy handle that only comes with age. Burnt orange, ivory and blue carry the whole 12 foot field without a single formal medallion, so the rug works in either direction and tolerates furniture placed across it. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity stating origin, materials and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

The field is an all-over column of large hooked diamond medallions, each one outlined with latch hook teeth and filled with small rosettes and stepped polygons, repeating up the length of the rug and mirroring left to right around a narrow spine of small dark blue anchor motifs. Between the medallions sit angular palmettes, comb-tooth leaves, 8 petal rosettes and tiny stars and diamonds scattered through the open ivory ground, the kind of geometric rug design that is drawn on the loom from memory rather than from a full cartoon. The surround is a 3 band border: a wide main band of alternating panels carrying 4 petal cross rosettes and barbed leaves, flanked on both sides by narrow guard stripes of reciprocal sawtooth and diagonal bars. Small irregularities in the repeat, a medallion slightly wider here, a border panel set a little off there, confirm the piece was woven entirely by hand.

Color: Burnt Orange, Ivory and Deep Blue

Burnt orange is the dominant note, reading as a soft brick terracotta in the main border and in the ground that frames each medallion, with areas where the tone shifts half a shade lighter or deeper across the width, the natural abrash of small dye lots. The field ground is a creamy ivory that has mellowed toward old parchment rather than bright white, and it is this ivory that makes the drawing legible from across a room. Deep indigo blue does the outlining work, in the guard stripes, the medallion spines and the small central motifs, while a lighter sky blue appears inside the rosettes and in some of the leaf fillers. Scattered through the pile are accents of camel brown, olive green, soft rust red and small touches of pure white in the cross rosettes of the border. The overall effect is warm and earthy, sitting comfortably on wood floors, with enough blue to tie into cooler upholstery.

Persian Origin and Weaving Quality

Made in Persia, this is a village weaving rather than a city workshop piece: a cotton foundation, a moderate knot count, bold angular drawing and tough local wool that has taken a lustrous polish with use. The Shirvan design, with its hooked diamonds and reciprocal guard stripes, traveled widely among Persian weavers and was repeated for generations in long formats exactly like this one, since a 12 foot loom length suited the narrow rooms it was woven for. The short remaining pile, the mellowed dyes and the patina on the ivory are all consistent with real age, and our guide on how to date an Oriental rug explains the signs we look for. Structurally the rug remains sound and flat, with its original selvages and end finishes in place, so it is ready to be laid down and used rather than treated as a wall piece.