6'6" x 9'10" Persian Nain Rug | Black & Ivory Wool and Silk Medallion | Never Used

A black-ground Nain is the less common choice, and this one shows why weavers keep coming back to it: every ivory vine and every thread of silk reads twice as bright against a dark field. The rug measures 6'6" x 9'10", hand-knotted in central Persia with a wool and silk pile on a cotton foundation, and it has never been on a floor. The pile still has its full 3/8" height, the ends and sides are original and untouched, and the silk in the flowers still catches light at an angle. It sits comfortably in the group buyers search as 7 x 10 Persian rugs, large enough to anchor a seating group under the front legs of a sofa and two chairs. It ships with our certificate of authenticity documenting origin, materials and construction.

Design and Motifs

The drawing is the classic Nain formula handled with restraint. A single domed medallion floats in the center of the field, built in concentric rings: an 8 petal rosette at the core, a circle of small lobed palmettes around it, then an outer collar of tiny heart-shaped and teardrop forms that gives the medallion its scalloped silhouette. Instead of heavy corner spandrels, the field carries an open all-over arabesque, thin eslimi vines that curl, split and loop back on themselves, carrying Shah Abbasi palmettes, small lotus heads and spade-shaped leaves. The vine work is symmetrical on both axes but never mechanical, and the silk is placed only where it earns its keep, on the vine outlines and in the hearts of the larger flowers. The main border is an ivory band of meandering floral vine flanked by a pair of narrow guard stripes, which frames the dark field cleanly and keeps the composition from feeling crowded at this size.

Black Field, Ivory Border and the Blues in Between

The field is a deep near-black with the faintest ink-blue cast, the kind of dark ground that photographs almost solid and then opens up under lamplight. Against it the palette is cool and layered: chalky ivory and cream in the vines and border, a soft camel and warm beige through the medallion rings, and then several distinct blues, pale sky blue in the rosette petals, a brighter turquoise-teal dotted through the small flower heads, and a slate blue used for shading and outlines. Occasional touches of sage green and a darker olive-brown appear in the leaves, adding weight where the drawing needs it. The ivory main border acts as a bright halt at the edge, and the untouched ivory fringe carries that same tone out past the ends. In practical terms this is a rug that works with charcoal, walnut, brass and cream rooms, and the dark ground is forgiving of daily traffic.

Nain: The Town and the Weave

Nain sits on the desert edge east of Isfahan, and its weaving history is short by Persian standards, dating to the 1930s when the town's fine wool cloth trade collapsed and its craftsmen turned to the loom. They brought a textile maker's eye for fine thread with them, which is why Persian Nain rugs are judged first on the crispness of their line. The Isfahan-derived curved drawing only holds up at a high knot count, and here the back shows the small, tightly packed, evenly ranked knots that let a vine turn in a smooth arc rather than a staircase of steps. The wool is spun fine and takes a low even clip, so the silk sits slightly proud of the wool and reads as a highlight rather than a sheen across the whole surface. A piece in this condition, never walked on and with its full pile intact, is bought as much for what it will look like in 30 years as for how it looks today.