6'6" x 10'1" Persian Ardebil Rug | Navy Herati All Over Field | Salmon Floral Border

This is a disciplined northwest Persian village weaving: a deep navy field carrying an unbroken Herati repeat, framed by a wide salmon border that lifts the whole piece out of the dark. Nothing about it is showy, which is exactly why it works in a real room. At 6'6" x 10'1" it falls into the most useful of all proportions, the 7x10 Persian rugs range, big enough to anchor a seating group yet still manageable in a standard room. The wool pile is full and even across the whole surface, the ends and sides are original, and the back (shown in the final photograph) reads clean and tight. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming it is hand-knotted, its origin and its materials.

Design and Motifs

The field is a classic Herati, known in Persia as mahi or the fish pattern: a diamond lattice with a rosette at each intersection and 4 curved lanceolate leaves turning around it like fish circling a pool. Here the repeat is drawn small and packed edge to edge, an all over Herati design with no medallion and no open ground, so the eye keeps traveling instead of settling in one place. Small stepped cartouches and 8 petal rosettes alternate through the lattice and break up what could otherwise be a monotonous grid. The border system is layered: a wide main band of turning palmettes, serrated leaves and blossoms on salmon, flanked by narrow navy and gold guard stripes filled with a running slanted-leaf motif, then a final outer stripe that keeps the whole frame crisp. The 4 corners resolve cleanly, which is a good indicator of a weaver working from a disciplined plan rather than improvising toward the ends.

A Closer Look at the Colors

The ground is a deep navy that reads almost black in the detail shots and warms toward inky blue in daylight. Against it the lattice is drawn in apricot and camel, with rosettes picked out in dusty rose, old ivory, soft sage green and small touches of brick red, so from a few steps back the field reads as genuine multi color rather than flat blue. The main border is the piece's counterweight: a soft salmon terracotta ground, neither pink nor orange, carrying palmettes in mustard gold, ivory and navy. Thin bands of clear yellow gold and mid blue separate border from field and give the frame its rhythm. The palette is warm enough to sit with wood, leather and brass, and dark enough in the field to be forgiving in a room that gets daily traffic. Photograph 1 was taken in brighter light than the close-ups, so judge the depth of the navy from the detail images.

Ardebil: Weaving in Northwest Persia

Ardebil sits high in the far northwest of Persia, a cold province of long winters and mountain pasture, and the name carries real weight in rug history thanks to the celebrated 16th century pair now held in museum collections. The modern town and its surrounding villages weave on cotton warps with wool from those high pastures, a springy, long-staple fleece that holds dye well and wears slowly. Ardebil weavers are known for tight, evenly beaten rows and for drawing repeats with an almost architectural regularity, which is why the pattern here holds its line for the full 10'1" without drifting. The result belongs with the best geometric Persian rugs of the region: firm in the hand, flat on the floor, and built to be walked on for decades rather than admired from a distance.