7'3" x 9'5" Persian Sarouk Rug | Wool | Navy Blue

This is a hand-knotted rug of 7'3" x 9'5", a medium size that covers most of a seating group without running to the walls. It was knotted in Persia with a wool pile of 3/8", and at a glance it reads as two things: a very dark blue field crowded edge to edge with small flowers, and a broad red border of large open rosettes around it. The ends finish in ivory fringe, and the condition is excellent.

Design

The field carries the detached floral sprays that the Sarouk drawing is known for: short curving stems of roses, leaves and small buds set loose on the ground rather than tied into one continuous vine, with a star-form rosette at the centre and a vase-like palmette standing at each end of the field on the long axis. Curled boteh sit in the field corners, their tips hooked over. Three borders frame it in a plain rectangular format: a wide main band of large eight-petalled rosettes alternating with leafy sprays, and narrow guard stripes of small four-petal flowerheads on a teal ground running either side of it.

Colour

The ground is a navy blue dark enough to go almost black in shadow, with a violet cast where the close-up light falls across the pile. Against it the flowers are worked in peach and soft rose, beige and ivory, with light blue flowerheads and small touches of green in the leaves. The main border is rust red, closer to brick in the full-length view and a lighter salmon in the corner detail, which lifts the whole piece away from the darkness of the field. The teal guard stripes are the one cool note holding the red and the blue apart.

Making

Hand-knotted in Persia in the 1990s, with a wool pile clipped to 3/8". The back, photographed against a ruler, shows a close and even knotting that holds the small flowerheads and the narrow guard-stripe drawing without blurring them. Selvedges are overcast in dark blue and the warps finish in plain ivory fringe at both ends. The rug is in excellent condition.