7' x 10'5" Persian Sarouk Rug | Wool | Coral Red and Navy

A hand-knotted Persian rug measuring 7' x 10'5", worked in wool on an open field of coral red. A navy medallion sits at the centre with pendants running north and south, and four cream corner spandrels close the field off at the ends. The rectangular format and the wide navy main border give it the formal look of a room-size town carpet rather than a tribal piece.

Design

The Sarouk drawing here is spare by the standards of the type. Most of the field is left plain, so the eye goes straight to the stepped navy medallion with its cream and light blue rosette at the centre, flanked by two small navy palmette finials and by dotted cloudband arms that reach out to either side. Above and below, anchor-shaped pendants end in arrowheads. The corner spandrels are drawn in cream and pale gold, filled with curling acanthus leaves and small floral cartouches, and their serrated inner edges cut into the red in long scrolls. The main border carries large cream and navy leaf palmettes alternating with coral flower heads on a navy ground, framed by light blue guard stripes of small meandering vine and by a narrow ivory outer guard.

Colour

The field is a coral red, lighter and warmer than a madder brick, closer to salmon where the light runs along the pile, and it shifts slightly in tone from one end of the rug to the other. Against it the navy of the medallion and border reads almost black in shadow and blue where the pile turns. Cream and beige carry the spandrels and the border leaves and keep the two strong colours apart. Light blue appears in the medallion rosette and in the guard stripes, and small amounts of green sit in the leaves and flower centres, enough to cool the red without competing with it.

Making

Hand-knotted in Persia in the 1980s, which places it among our semi-antique stock, with a wool pile clipped to 3/8". The back shows an even, fine knotting with the border pattern legible from the reverse, and the ivory warp ends are finished as plain fringe at both ends. Condition is excellent, with full pile throughout. It sits with the rest of the hand-knotted rugs we carry.