7'7" x 9'9" Persian Nain Habibian Rug | Signed Wool and Silk Ogival Trellis | Approx. 500 KPSI, Never Used

This is a signed, never used piece from the town that turned fine wool weaving into a national standard, and it belongs with the best Persian Nain rugs we handle. The pile is wool with silk drawn through the outlines and the smallest flower heads, knotted at roughly 500 knots per square inch on a cotton foundation, which is why the drawing stays crisp at arm's length and under a loupe. The cartouche woven into the top border carries the weaver's name, attributed to the Habibian workshop, and the rug has never been on a floor. At 7'7" x 9'9" it sits squarely in the 8x10 Persian rugs range, the size most buyers need for a seating group or a formal dining table. Every rug we ship leaves with a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The field is laid out as an ogival trellis: rows of lobed, pointed cartouches formed by thin flowering vines, each compartment filled with a different arrangement. Some hold a single flowering shrub rising from a small mound, some a footed vase of blossoms tied with a ribbon, and the central column alternates with 8 petal rosette medallions drawn in navy and outlined in silk. Nothing in the trellis repeats mechanically; the weaver varied the bouquets from cell to cell, which is the mark of a workshop cartoon drawn for a specific loom rather than a stock pattern. The main border runs a procession of palmettes and serrated leaves on a camel ground, punctuated by navy quatrefoil rosettes at regular intervals, framed on both sides by narrow floral guard stripes and a fine reciprocal minor band. The 4 corners resolve cleanly, with the border turning the angle without breaking the vine, and the signature cartouche interrupts the camel border at one end.

Ivory Ground with Blue, Camel and Burgundy

The ground is a warm, milky ivory with no yellow cast, and it carries the whole design because everything else is drawn small against it. Blue does the structural work in 3 distinct values: a deep navy for outlines, rosette centers and the quatrefoils in the border, a clear mid blue for petals and leaf tips, and a pale sky blue used in the silk highlights that catch light as you walk past. Burgundy appears in measured touches, in the scrolling vines at the field ends and in scattered flower heads, enough to warm the palette without dominating it. The border shifts the temperature to a soft camel and sand tone, with sage green leaves, faded salmon blossoms and touches of chestnut brown. Seen from an angle the silk reads as a brighter line drawing over the matte wool, so the same rug looks quiet from one end of the room and luminous from the other.

Nain Weaving and the Habibian Workshop

Nain sits in central Persia on the edge of the desert, east of Isfahan, and until the 1930s the town was known for fine wool cloth rather than rugs. When the cloth trade fell away the weavers moved to the loom and brought their standards with them, which is why Nain work went straight to a level of fineness most villages never reach. Habibian is the name at the top of that tradition, and Nain Habibian rugs are the pieces collectors look for first: tight knotting, silk reserved for outlines rather than splashed across the field, and a drawing hand that keeps curved lines truly curved. The back of this rug shows small, even knots and a straight, well tensioned cotton warp, with a flat handle and a low, dense clip that will hold its detail for generations. Signed, unused, and woven to roughly 500 knots per square inch, it is a workshop piece rather than a commercial one.