6'9" x 9'10" Persian Sarouk Lilihan Rug | Navy Blue All Over Floral | 1980s, Excellient Condition

Measuring 6'9" x 9'10", this Persian Sarouk rug was woven in the 1980's in the Lilihan village group south of Arak, on a cotton foundation with a dense 3/8" wool pile. The field reads almost black at a distance and resolves into deep navy once light falls across it, carrying a continuous floral composition in beige, cream and soft brown rather than a central medallion. It is a room-size piece that sits comfortably in the 7x10 Persian rugs range, with straight sides, even selvedges and the original hand-knotted fringe intact at both ends. The pile is full and unworn, the colors have mellowed only slightly with age, and the rug ships with our certificate of authenticity confirming it as a hand-knotted Persian Sarouk.

Design and Motifs

The drawing is a classic Sarouk all over floral design, built from large curling acanthus sprays that mirror each other across the center line of the field. Between them sit clusters of 8 petal rosettes, serrated leaves, small blue bud sprigs and slender vines that tie one spray to the next, so the eye travels the length of the rug instead of stopping at a medallion. A vertical column of paired scrolls runs up the middle, each pair closing on a hooked tendril that works almost like a cartouche. The main border is a meandering vine set with palmettes, open shrub forms and small 4 petal flowerheads, framed on both sides by narrow ivory guard stripes carrying a running floral meander, with a thin navy line at the outermost edge. The close-up shows how cleanly the curved line is held: the leaf veins are drawn stripe by stripe in alternating light blue and cream, which is detail work you only get when the knot count supports it.

A Navy Blue Field With Camel, Beige and Cream

The ground is a deep navy blue that photographs as near black in the detail image and opens up to true indigo in the full room shots. Against it the large leaf sprays are worked in cream and pale beige with warm camel shading, so each spray has a highlight edge and a shadowed core. The main border shifts the palette to a soft camel and salmon beige, which lifts the whole rug and keeps the dark field from closing in, while the guard stripes are a cleaner ivory. Smaller accents do the rest of the work: tomato and brick red in the rosette centers and border flowerheads, light blue in the leaf veining and bud sprigs, and a muted sage green in the leaves and stems. Brown appears in the vines and in the deeper shading of the palmettes. The combination suits a room with wood floors and warm neutral walls, and the reds and light blues give a reliable base to pull accent colors from.

Sarouk Weaving in Central Persia

Sarouk is a weaving district in Markazi province in central Persia, with the town of Arak as its market center and a ring of villages, Lilihan among them, supplying the looms. The district built its reputation on floral drawing worked in heavy, tightly packed wool on a cotton foundation, which is why Sarouk rugs have always been bought as rugs to live on rather than to hang. This piece follows that tradition closely: the back is tight and regular, the knots sit in even rows, and the pile is heavy enough to stand up to a dining table or a busy family room without crushing. The curved stems and the fine striped veining in the leaves show a weaver working from a careful cartoon, not from memory, which is the mark of the better village and workshop output from this area. Four decades on, the wool still has its lanolin shine, and the rug lies flat with no bowing at the ends.