8'5" x 11'10" Sino Isfahan Rug | Wool & Silk Dome Star Medallion | Excellent Condition

This is a Sino Isfahan: a hand-knotted Oriental rug made in a Chinese master workshop to the classical Isfahan drawing tradition, in fine wool with silk highlights over a cotton foundation. The composition is a dome, the design a weaver takes on only when the knot count will carry it: a 12 point star medallion at dead centre with the whole field radiating outward from it in curved panels. At 8'5" x 11'10" it sits comfortably in the range of large area rugs that anchor a full seating group or a 10 seat table. The pile is full, the fringe and flat-woven ends are intact and square, and the rug has never been used. It ships with a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The centre holds a 12 point star, its inner cartouche filled with a camel ground and a symmetrical arabesque of split leaves and small blossoms. From the star, alternating dark and light triangular rays push outward into a ring of lozenge compartments, each one carrying a single tulip or rosette. Beyond that ring the field opens into tall curved panels, some drawn as paisley boteh arches, others as dome ribs, every one packed with its own scrolling vine, palmettes and tiny leaf work on an ivory ground. It reads like the interior of a tiled cupola seen from directly below. The main border answers with a run of alternating shield cartouches and eight lobed rosettes, framed by narrow guard stripes of barber pole diagonals and a delicate meander of paired buds. Corners resolve cleanly, which is the tell of a properly cartooned workshop piece rather than a copied one.

A Palette of Ivory, Sage and Muted Rose

The field ground is a warm ivory that shifts toward cream where the silk highlights catch the light, and it is this pale base that keeps such a busy drawing from feeling heavy. Against it the designer works a muted, almost antiqued range: soft sage and olive green through the main border and the outer compartments, dusty rose and salmon in the rosettes and tulip heads, camel and tan in the medallion core, and deep burgundy used sparingly in the star rays and the border cartouches for weight. Charcoal grey outlines separate the motifs and give the paisley arches their definition, with pinpoints of pale blue and gold scattered through the vine work. The selvages and the long cotton fringe are natural ivory. On a wood floor, as shown in the photographs, the whole palette warms up; under cooler north light the greys and sages come forward.

Woven in China to Workshop Standards

Sino weaving of classical city designs matured into serious work decades ago, and the best of it is judged the same way any workshop rug is judged: on knot density, on the crispness of the curved line, and on the quality of the wool. This piece holds up on all three. The knotting is tight and even enough to draw the hairline outlines and the tiny lozenge fillers without blurring, the silk highlights are placed as accents rather than sprayed across the field, and the wool has a clean handle with real lustre. The back, shown against a ruler in the last photograph, is uniform with no pulled rows or corrections. For a buyer who wants the drawing of a fine city rug in an 8'5" x 11'10" format, this is the sensible route to it.