5'2" x 8'3" Persian Nain Rug | Red Field Floral with Birds | Wool & Silk, Never Used

Most Nain weaving arrives on an ivory or navy ground, which is exactly why this Persian Nain rug stops people. The field is a deep, saturated red, and every stem, bird and blossom on it is drawn in ivory, cream and blue with silk used to outline the finer elements so they catch the light as you walk past. It measures 5'2" x 8'3", was woven in the 2000's, and has never been on a floor: the pile stands full and even from end to end, the fringes are untrimmed, and the selvedges are intact. Wool and silk pile on a cotton foundation, hand-knotted one knot at a time. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity that records origin, materials, size and weave.

Design and Motifs

This is an all over floral design rather than a medallion piece, so the eye keeps moving instead of settling in the center. Slender flowering branches rise from the lower border and repeat up the length of the field, carrying blue hyacinth clusters, small rosettes and serrated leaves. Set along those branches are woven birds, long-tailed songbirds perched on the stems and standing pheasants at the base of the field, each one shaded with 4 or 5 tones so the wing and tail read separately. Twice along the center line sits a large blue and ivory vase motif with curling arabesque handles, the anchor points of the drawing. The main ivory border runs a procession of lancet leaf palmettes alternating with small floral sprays, framed on both sides by narrow salmon guard stripes of repeating blossoms and a fine navy outline. The corners are resolved cleanly, which on a rug this busy is the mark of a weaver following a properly drawn cartoon.

A Deep Red Field Against Ivory and Blue

Red is the main color here, a deep cochineal red with a faint raspberry cast that reads warmer in lamplight and cooler under a window. Against it, the drawing is carried in ivory and cream, with beige and soft salmon filling the larger leaf forms and the inner guard band. The blues do the heavy lifting: a dark navy for outlines and the vase interiors, a mid sky blue for the hyacinth clusters and small star rosettes, and a pale ice blue used sparingly on bird feathers and flower centers. Quiet touches of gray and sage green sit inside the leaves and bird bodies, and small wine-red accents repeat in the border blossoms. The ivory main border and the untrimmed ivory fringe lift the whole piece and keep the red from reading heavy. In a room with dark wood floors, navy upholstery or cognac leather, as in the styled photograph, the red field warms the floor while the ivory frame keeps the edges crisp.

Woven in Nain, Central Persia

Nain sits on the western edge of the great salt desert in central Persia, a few hours east of Isfahan. The town spent generations weaving fine wool cloth, and when that trade declined the same craftsmen turned to knotting rugs, bringing a textile maker's discipline with them. That history explains the Nain signature: a tight, low pile clipped short so the drawing stays legible, silk used as an outlining thread rather than as a showpiece, and a color palette built on restraint. What makes this particular piece unusual is that the workshop kept the classic Nain drawing and curvilinear precision but laid it on red instead of the expected ivory. The knotting is even across both ends, the back shows a regular, fine grid, and at 5'2" x 8'3" the rug is large enough to hold a seating group yet small enough to move between rooms as your plans change.