6'10" x 9'8" Persian Bakhtiari Rug | Red | Rectangular

A hand-knotted Persian rug measuring 6'10" x 9'8", rectangular and closely drawn, with a pale ivory medallion floating on a field of bright tomato red. Deep navy fills the four corners and the two side cartouches, and an ivory border carries the pattern around all four sides. Seen from across a room, as in the second photograph, it reads as red and ivory with blue anchoring the edges; up close it is a far busier rug than that, packed with small flowerheads in pink, green and gold.

The design

This is a medallion-and-corner Bakhtiari rather than the panelled garden layout the name often brings to mind. The centre is a stepped ivory medallion built from concentric rings of rosettes and small leaves, with a single rose at its core and two navy pendants reaching out along the long axis. Around it the red field is filled edge to edge with palmettes, serrated leaves and curling vine, the drawing loose enough that no two quarters repeat exactly. The navy corner spandrels hold large scrolling vines and small white boteh-like blossoms, each scroll ending in a tight curl, and the same navy returns midway along each side in a pair of lobed cartouches. The main border runs ivory with alternating rosettes and open flower sprays on a leafy ground, flanked by narrow red guard stripes and a fine serrated outer edge.

The colour

The dominant red is a warm orange-leaning madder, close to tomato in the open field and darkening where it meets the navy. Against it the ivory of the medallion and border reads almost chalk white, which is what gives the rug its carrying power from a distance. The blue is a deep indigo navy, nearly black in the shadowed photograph of the corner. Scattered through the field are rose pink, a dusty sage and olive green, small notes of apricot gold and a clear mid brown. The folded corner in the fourth image shows the colours running true from pile to foundation, with no sign that the reds have been pulled down.

The making

Hand-knotted in Persia and listed in excellent condition, with the pile standing evenly across the field and the plain woven ends intact behind short fringes. The reverse, visible where the corner is turned back, shows a legible knot grid and the full pattern reading clearly through to the back, including the ivory border rosettes. At 6'10" x 9'8" it sits in the 6x9 to 8x10 range, a practical size for a sitting room or under a smaller dining table, and one of many formats held across the full collection.