8'10" x 11'3" Persian Kerman Rug | Lavar Design Navy Blue Floral Medallion | Dense Wool Pile

Laid flat, this 8'10" x 11'3" Persian Kerman reads as one complete composition rather than a collection of parts: a gold and raspberry star medallion suspended on a midnight navy ground, 4 pale celadon spandrels squaring off the corners, and a deep red palmette border closing the whole thing in. The drawing is Lavar grade, the finer Kerman idiom named for Ravar, the weaving village north of the city whose workshops were handed the most detailed cartoons. You can see it in the thin, confident vine lines and in the small rosebuds that fill the field without ever crowding the medallion. The 3/8" pile is dense wool, still full and upright from selvage to selvage, and the condition is perfect. In scale it belongs with our 9x12 Persian rugs, large enough to hold a full seating group, and it ships with a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The centerpiece is an 8 lobed star medallion drawn in gold and raspberry around a small celadon and navy core, its lobes filled with pale blossoms and stepped boteh, with pointed palmette finials running off the top and bottom axis. The navy ground around it is mirrored on both axes: long curling vines carry lotus palmettes, open roses, serrated leaves, tulip buds and scattered rosebuds, all outlined in ivory so each motif stays legible against the dark ground. The 4 corner spandrels are worked in soft celadon and repeat the same floral vocabulary at quarter scale, their edges cut in a scalloped cloud line. The main border is a wide red band alternating large palmettes with navy 8 point star rosettes and curved leaf sprays, flanked by celadon and ivory gold guard stripes of small repeating blossoms. In the lower guard band sits a small woven cartouche, the kind of quiet workshop mark that tells you the piece was drawn and knotted to a plan.

A Midnight Navy Field Against Raspberry Red

The field is a true midnight navy, deep enough to read nearly black in low light and to shift toward indigo where the pile leans to the light. Against it the border runs a cool raspberry red, more cherry than brick, which is what keeps this piece from looking heavy. The third color is the one that sets Lavar work apart: a soft celadon blue, almost eau de nil, used for the spandrels, the inner guard stripe and dozens of individual leaves and petals inside the field. Rose pink, buttery ivory, antique gold, olive and fresh grass green, and a few camel brown leaves fill out the palette, with ivory outlining nearly every flower head. If you are shopping navy blue Persian rugs, this is the warm version of navy, one that sits happily with cream walls, walnut furniture and old leather rather than fighting them.

Kerman Weaving and the Lavar Standard

Kerman sits in the southeast of Persia and has been a city of professional workshops for centuries, which is why its rugs are drawn in flowing curved line rather than village geometry: a master designer put the cartoon on paper and the weavers followed it knot for knot. Lavar, or Ravar, is the town to the north whose name became shorthand for the most finely drawn Kerman work, with thinner vines, smaller flower heads and more colors in play. This piece follows that standard. Turn it over and the reverse shows small, even knot nodes in straight vertical rows on a cotton foundation, the pattern fully legible from the back, with a tidy overcast selvage and hand-tied ivory fringe at both ends. The 3/8" wool pile is packed tight and cut level, the kind of weight that flattens under furniture and springs back, and it explains why a Kerman of this grade still looks like this after being properly kept.