6'6" x 9'9" Persian Isfahan Rug | Signed Wool & Silk on Silk Foundation | Approx. 500 KPSI

Fine Isfahan weaving is judged on three things: the drawing, the knot count, and what the foundation will allow. This 6'6" x 9'9" Persian Isfahan rug answers all three. Wool blended with silk is knotted at roughly 500 knots per square inch over a pure silk foundation, and that silk warp is the reason the curved lines through the medallion and the vine scrolls stay smooth instead of stepping. One end of the light blue guard border carries a woven signature cartouche, the mark of the workshop that produced it, and the pile still has the glassy sheen of a rug that has never been walked down. Woven in the 2000's and in perfect condition, with no wear and no repairs, it ships with a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a 16 point star medallion: a pale ivory and sky blue core built around a small rosette, ringed by a navy band filled with cream and camel palmettes, then finished with slender pendants at top and bottom. Out from that, the red field runs as a continuous lattice of arabesque vinework, split palmettes, lotus blossoms and small serrated leaves, each stem outlined in ivory so the pattern reads clearly from across the room. The 4 corner spandrels drop into a soft rose ground with their own floral fill, which frames the field without competing with it. Three border bands carry the edge: a wide indigo main border of alternating rosettes and curving vines, an ivory band of paired blossoms and scrolling stems, and an outer light blue guard with a repeating palmette cadence. The balance is classic Isfahan, dense but never crowded, with mirrored drawing on all 4 sides.

Colors: Crimson Field, Indigo Border, Ivory Medallion

The field is a deep crimson red with a slight raspberry cast, a saturated tone that photographs darker in raking light and lifts toward true red when the rug is viewed straight on. Against it, the main border is a near black indigo navy, and the contrast between the two is what gives the rug its weight. The medallion and the ivory guard band supply the light: chalk ivory, cream and a pale sky blue that repeats through the palmettes and the outer guard border. Warmer secondary tones run through the flowers, soft rose and old pink in the spandrels, olive green in the leaves, camel and cinnamon brown in the palmette hearts, with occasional wine red accents. The silk content sits mostly in the outlines and the lighter blossoms, so those areas flash brighter than the wool around them and the whole surface changes tone as you move past it.

Isfahan: Origin, Workshop and Weaving Quality

Isfahan sits in central Persia and has been a court weaving city since the Safavid workshops of the 16th century. Its reputation was never built on thick pile or tribal character but on draftsmanship, the curved line, the flowing vine and the precision of a repeat, and drawing like that only survives at a high knot count. That is why the best Isfahan workshops knot on silk: a silk warp is thinner and stronger than cotton, so more knots fit across the width and the weaver can follow the cartoon exactly. At approximately 500 knots per square inch, this is workshop rather than village weaving, and the signature cartouche confirms it was made to be attributed. If you want to understand what the foundation does to price and longevity, our guide to Persian silk rugs covers it, and the wider selection of 7x10 Persian rugs shows where this piece sits among comparable city weaves.