7'4" x 10'3" Persian Sarouk Rug | Navy Blue All-Over Floral | 1980s Wool Pile

This is a 1980s workshop piece in the classic manner of Persian Sarouk rugs, hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation and measuring 7'4" x 10'3". The pile stands a full 3/8" and the surface is even from selvage to selvage, with tight, straight edges and clean original fringe on both ends, which is why it grades excellent. At this footprint it belongs with the most usable 7 x 10 Persian rugs, big enough to anchor a seating group without swallowing the room. Every rug we ship leaves Freeport with a certificate of authenticity recording origin, materials, age and knotting.

Design and Motifs

The field carries the Sarouk signature: detached floral sprays, each one a small bouquet of rosettes, buds and curled serrated leaves, set in staggered rows across an open ground rather than tied into a continuous vine. Toward the center the sprays gather into a soft lozenge cluster that reads as a medallion without ever being outlined, so the eye settles in the middle but the pattern keeps running to all 4 corners. The drawing is semi-curvilinear, drawn with confidence and repeated with enough variation that no 2 bouquets are identical. Framing it are 5 bands: a wide main border of linked palmettes and rosettes on a brick ground, flanked by ivory guard stripes of meandering vine and tiny blossoms, then narrow navy outer stripes that close the composition cleanly.

A Navy Blue Ground Lit by Coral, Ivory and Gold

The ground is a deep midnight navy, dark enough at a distance to read almost black, and it does the work of making every other color look brighter than it is. Against it the bouquets run coral and salmon orange, warm gold, soft sage and light sky blue, with cream and ivory outlines that separate each element from the field. Touches of aubergine and cocoa brown sit in the leafwork and give the palette weight. The main border shifts to a brick red with a faintly terracotta cast, and the ivory guard bands lift the whole frame so the navy center appears to float. Under lamplight the wool takes on a low sheen and the coral tones warm further, which is exactly how a good Sarouk palette is meant to behave in a real room.

Sarouk Weaving in West-Central Persia

Sarouk is a village in the Arak district of west-central Persia, and its weavers built their reputation on rugs that were as durable as they were decorative. The weave is dense and heavy for its class, knotted on a stout cotton warp and weft, with the pile left thick so the rug wears down slowly and evenly over decades of use. The back of this piece, shown against the ruler, is regular and tightly packed, the knot rows straight and the design legible from the reverse, all marks of a disciplined workshop weaver rather than casual village work. Sarouks of this period are the rugs American buyers have furnished formal rooms with for a century, and a clean 1980s example with full pile is increasingly hard to find.