7'11" x 11'8" Persian Sarough Rug | Red Floral Medallion | Ivory Spandrels, Excellent Condition

This 7'11" x 11'8" rug is a classic room size piece from the Sarough weaving group of central Persia, hand-knotted on a cotton foundation with a 3/8" wool pile that still carries a strong, even sheen across the whole field. The drawing follows the formal Sarough formula: a deep red ground filled edge to edge with curving vine, a slim navy medallion dropped into the center, and ivory spandrels cut into each of the 4 corners. The pile has held its height, the ends and sides are sound, and the condition reads excellent, which is what you want in a wool rug of this age and scale. If you want the background before you buy, our guide to Persian Sarough rugs covers the weave and the market. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The field is an all-over floral composition rather than a bare ground with a single ornament. Thin red and blue vines run the length of the rug and throw off palmettes, split leaves, serrated lotus blossoms and small strings of ivory rosettes, so that almost no part of the red is left empty. At the center sits an elongated lobed medallion outlined in pale blue, with a navy ground and an inner cartouche of olive and old gold holding a single rosette, finished top and bottom with a slender floral pendant. The corner spandrels are drawn in ivory with red and green scrolling arabesque, and their scalloped edges give the field its shape. The main border is a dark navy band carrying linked arched panels, each holding a rosette and a pair of leaves, framed on both sides by mid blue guard stripes of running vine and a fine barber pole outer edge. The border runs true around all 4 sides and the corners resolve cleanly, which is a sign of a weaver working from a properly drawn cartoon.

Color: Red Pink Field, Ivory Corners and Mid Blue Borders

The ground is a warm red that leans slightly pink in direct light and deepens toward a cooler brick tone where the pile lies away from you, the natural abrash of a wool rug dyed in small lots. Against it the palette is unusually varied for a formal Persian rug: soft turquoise and mid blue in the vines, ivory and cream in the rosettes and spandrels, olive and mustard gold in the medallion core, sage and bottle green in the leaves, and touches of rose pink and salmon in the flower heads. The main border sits at the dark end of the scale, close to navy black, which pushes the red field forward and keeps the whole rug from reading as one flat block of color. The mid blue guard stripes are the brightest note in the piece and act as a clean line between border and field. Overall the rug is a red rug first, with blue, ivory and gold doing the detail work, so it sits easily with wood floors, cream walls and both dark and light upholstery.

Sarough Origin and Weaving Quality

Sarough is a village and weaving district in the Arak region of central Persia, long grouped with the surrounding Sultanabad workshops that supplied the American market with heavy, durable floral rugs from the late 19th century onward. What separates a Sarough from its neighbors is the combination of a tight, evenly beaten weave and a thick, hard wearing wool pile, so the rug takes fine curved drawing yet still handles decades of traffic in a real room. This piece shows that character: the knots are compact and regular on the back, the outlines of the vines stay crisp with no wandering, and the 3/8" pile has enough body to stand up under furniture at a length of 11'8". Rugs of this group were woven for daily use in large rooms, and a well kept example in excellent condition at this size remains one of the most practical ways to put an authentic handmade Persian floral rug on the floor.