6' x 9' Silk Oriental Rug | Dom Esfahan Turquoise Dome Medallion | Brand New, Never Used

This is the dome cartoon, known in the trade as Dom Esfahan, knotted here entirely in silk on a turquoise ground and finished at 6' x 9'. Hold it at arm's length and the drawing behaves like the inside of a domed ceiling seen from directly below: a small gold rosette at the apex, then ring after ring of pointed cells opening outward until they meet a deep coral arcade border. The pile is short and glassy, the knotting tight enough to hold the thin navy outline that separates every one of those cells, and the rug has never been on a floor. It is a versatile drawing-room size that sits comfortably in the 6 x 9 rug range, and it ships with a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a small circular medallion, a pink and ivory rosette ringed by a gold sawtooth halo, and from it the whole field radiates. Concentric bands of pointed ogee cells expand outward, each one outlined in navy and filled with curling vine, palmettes, small rosettes and olive leaf sprays, so the pattern reads as a single unbroken dome rather than as a repeat. Around the field runs a three part border system: a wide coral band of arched niches, each arch holding a blue and green floral spray, framed above and below by narrow guard stripes of miniature arcades and a diamond and rosette band. Outside that sits a plain navy outer stripe, and beyond it a woven ivory end panel carrying a scrolling vine, a small blank cartouche and pink blossoms before the heavy silk fringe. The corners resolve cleanly, with the field lattice meeting the border on an exact diagonal rather than being cut off mid motif, which is the detail worth checking on any dome design.

The Turquoise Field and Its Peach Counterpoint

Turquoise carries the rug, but it is not one flat tone. The open ground inside each cell is a light aquamarine, the vine work over it shifts into a stronger sea green, and the outlines drop to a near black navy, so the field reads as pale mint from one end of the room and as jewel teal from the other. Against that cool ground the weaver set warm accents: an apricot and gold medallion at the center, soft brown and rust in the radiating cell walls, and a peach to coral border that turns almost salmon where the light hits the silk. Inside the border arches there is ruby red, cobalt blue, olive green, buttercup yellow and a chalky ivory that keeps the whole band from going heavy. Beige and ivory appear again in the guard stripes and the end panel, and the navy outer stripe and selvedge frame everything with a firm dark edge. The palette is confident and sizable in effect, but the individual colors are soft rather than electric.

Made in China: Silk Weaving and Quality

This piece was hand-knotted in China, where the best contemporary silk workshops now produce some of the finest knotting available at any price. Silk demands it: the yarn is thin, so the weaver has to place far more knots per row than wool requires, and only a dense weave will hold the hairline navy outlines and the tiny rosettes inside each cell without blurring. You can see the result on the folded corner, where the back is crisp and evenly beaten with no slack rows, and along the fringe, which is silk and tied off cleanly. The pile is clipped low so the pattern stays sharp and the sheen stays alive. Sold as a contemporary Oriental rug, it belongs with the finer hand-knotted silk rugs in our inventory, and at 6' x 9' it is equally at home under a low table or mounted flat on a wall where the dome can be read whole.