8'1" x 11'4" Persian Qum Silk Rug | Navy Medallion on Terracotta Red Field | New, Never Used

Silk is the only fiber that does what this rug does: the terracotta red field changes weight as you walk around it, reading warm and coppery from one end and deeper, almost rose, from the other. It is a full room size piece at 8'1" x 11'4", knotted entirely in silk on a silk foundation, and the drawing is held to the standard expected of Persian Qum silk rugs, with every vine closing cleanly and every mirrored half of the field matching its twin. Buyers looking at 8x11 Persian rugs rarely find one in pure silk at this scale, because the fiber cost and the knot count make large silk pieces uncommon. This one is brand new and has never been on a floor. It ships with a certificate of authenticity recording its size, materials and origin.

Design and Motifs

The center carries a lobed navy medallion with small pendants at each end, filled with ivory arabesque tracery and a ring of salmon and cream petals radiating from a tiny central rosette. Around it the field is not left open: it is covered edge to edge with a fine all-over vinescroll of palmettes, single blossoms and curling serrated leaves, each stem drawn with the curved line that separates workshop weaving from village weaving. The field is framed by an 8 sided outline that steps around the corners, and the 4 spandrels repeat the navy ground of the medallion so the composition reads as one idea rather than three. The main border is a navy band of large shell shaped palmettes alternating with upright flowering sprays, flanked by ivory and red guard stripes filled with small crosses and rosettes. Count the repeats along the length and they land evenly at the corners, which is a detail a weaver has to plan for before the first knot.

The Color: Terracotta Red Lit From Within

The field is a warm terracotta red, closer to copper and burnt orange than to the blue reds of central Persia, and because the pile is silk it throws light rather than absorbing it. Against that ground the navy of the medallion, spandrels and main border reads almost black in shadow and opens into a clear ink blue in direct light. The drawing itself is carried in ivory and cream, with salmon pink, soft rose and a muted sage to olive green picked out in the individual blossoms and leaf tips, plus small touches of pale gold in the border palmettes. The guard stripes bring a brick red and a chalky ivory that keep the two large masses of color apart. There is no abrash or streaking in the field, and the tonal depth you see across Persian silk rugs like this one comes from the fiber itself, not from a wash.

Qum Weaving and the Quality of the Knot

Qum sits south of Tehran and is the youngest of the great Persian weaving cities, with serious production beginning only in the 20th century, yet it climbed to the top of the trade by refusing to compete on anything but fineness. Qum workshops use only the finest silk, and the rivalry between the city's ateliers is what pushes knot counts higher year after year. You can read the result on the reverse of this rug: the back is as legible as the front, every blossom and every leaf tip resolved in the weave, with a tight even handle and a low pile that lets the smallest details hold their shape. The finished ends are secured and the silk warps run out into a soft ivory fringe. A piece this size in pure silk represents a very large number of hours at the loom, which is exactly why large Qum silk rugs stay scarce.