7'8" x 10' Wool and Silk Oriental Rug | Dom Esfahan Dome Design | Brand New, Never Used

The Dom Esfahan drawing is one of the most demanding patterns a weaver can be handed. It shows a dome seen from directly underneath, every rib, arch and panel foreshortened so that the field seems to lift and curve away from the floor rather than lie flat on it. This 7'8" x 10' piece is hand-knotted in wool with silk highlights over a cotton foundation, and it is brand new and never used, so the pile still carries the full sheen it had coming off the loom. It ships with a certificate of authenticity. The stated palette runs through black, burgundy and green, with camel, ivory and slate blue doing the structural drawing.

Design and Motifs

Everything radiates from a multi point star medallion at the exact center, filled with a fine tracery of vine, small rosettes and tiny paired birds worked in camel and ivory. From that star, wedge shaped ribs run outward and widen into a ring of arched panels, each one drawn like a niche and filled with its own scrolling vinework, palmettes and split leaf arabesques. At the 4 corners the pattern resolves into large boteh, the teardrop paisley forms that hang down toward the border with their own miniature floral interiors. The surround is a panelled border rather than a single running band: alternating squared cartouches carry 8 petal rosettes and stepped star medallions, separated by narrow guard stripes of reciprocal barbs and linked vine. Note how the drawing stays true across the whole field, with the arch outlines and bead work staying thin and continuous instead of stepping or breaking up, which is the real test of this pattern.

A Field of Black, Burgundy and Green

The deep tones do the heavy lifting. Black fills the arched niches and the ground between the ribs, reading almost as shadow inside the dome, while burgundy anchors the border panels and the outer edge of each boteh. Green appears in the scrolling leaves and in the darker cartouche fields, cooling the reds where they meet. Against that depth the weaver set a warm camel and ivory for the star medallion, the arch outlines and the border ground, and a soft slate blue through the radiating wedges and the smaller cartouche medallions, with occasional navy and rose accents in the flower heads. The silk sits in the highlights, so as you walk around the rug the lighter outlines flare and the black grounds hold steady, which is exactly what gives the dome its illusion of depth. In the close photographs you can see the pile shift from honey to pale gold depending on the direction of the nap.

Weave, Origin and Where It Fits

This piece was made in China, and that is worth stating plainly rather than dressing up: Chinese looms produce some of the most disciplined hand-knotted reproduction work being woven today, and this one is a good example. The knotting is tight and even, the selvages are firm, the ivory fringe is part of the cotton warp and hand finished, and the back shows a clean, regular grid with no pull or waviness. A pattern like this simply cannot be drawn at a loose weave, which is why the fine outlines stay crisp. It is an Oriental rug in the correct sense of the term, woven by hand knot by knot in the classical tradition. At 7'8" x 10' it sits squarely in the 8x10 area rug range, large enough to carry a full seating group with the front legs on, or to hold a table for 6 with the chairs still on the pile.