6'7" x 9'8" Persian Kerman Rug | Red Field, Ivory Floral Medallion | Excellent Condition

This is a classic Kerman in the most useful proportion a formal room can take, a true 7x10 Persian rug measuring 6'7" x 9'8". The pile is wool at 3/8", cut low and even, so the drawing stays crisp from the center rosette out to the last ivory guard stripe. Handling it, two things stand out: the weight is moderate rather than heavy, which is normal for Kerman's single-weft structure, and the wool still has a soft sheen across the open red ground where light moves as you walk around it. The field is uncrowded by Persian standards, the medallion is fully resolved rather than abbreviated, and the border system is complete on all 4 sides with no shortened repeats. Condition is excellent, with full pile, straight sides and clean ivory fringe. Every rug we ship carries a certificate of authenticity confirming it is hand-knotted in Persia.

Design and Motifs

The layout is the traditional medallion and corner formula drawn in a Kerman hand. At the center sits an 8 petal rosette in pale blue with a small gold heart, set inside an ivory and cream star frame, which in turn sits on a navy cusped cartouche with rose pink blossoms and curling vine tips. Above and below the medallion, slender navy and ivory pendants reach into the field. The red ground carries loose bouquets rather than a continuous lattice: sprays of small blue forget-me-not blossoms, white and cream buds, tulip heads, and feathered sage green leaf stems with fine whisker-like tendrils, the detail seen most clearly in the close-up photos. The scalloped light blue spandrels fill each of the 4 corners with their own flowering vine, and the main navy border runs an ivory vine scroll punctuated by rosette cartouches, flanked by an ivory outer guard sprinkled with pink rosettes and a narrow camel reciprocal line.

The Color Palette in Detail

The field is a deep madder red with a slight tomato warmth, not a cool burgundy and not a bright scarlet, which is exactly where the best red and burgundy Persian rugs tend to sit. Against it the border reads near-black indigo navy, giving the rug a strong frame and making the ivory scrollwork jump forward. Between those two poles the weaver placed a full range of soft tones: sky and powder blue in the spandrels and flower heads, a muted rose pink in the border rosettes and medallion buds, ivory and oatmeal cream in the medallion core and outer guard, sage and olive green in the leaves, and a quiet camel taupe used for outlines and the thin dividing stripe. The result is cheerful rather than heavy, and in the detail shots you can see small abrash variations in the red where the dye lots shifted, the signature of natural wool taken from a village dye pot.

Kerman Origin and Weaving Quality

Kerman sits in the southeast of Persia, a desert city with a weaving tradition that reaches back to the Safavid era and a reputation built on drawing rather than brute density. Kerman weavers worked from careful cartoons, which is why the curved lines of this medallion close cleanly and the border rosettes repeat without crowding. The structure is the Kerman standard: a cotton foundation with a low wool pile clipped short enough to hold detail, and the reverse shown with the ruler reveals a fine, regular knot line with no slack rows, pulled warps or repairs. Kerman wool from the Kerman plateau takes dye well and polishes with use, so the sheen on this piece will deepen rather than dull. The weaving town is also known for its pictorial garden borders, and the flowering vine in this navy border belongs to that same garden vocabulary, scaled down to suit a 6'7" x 9'8" room rug.