8'6" x 10'6" Persian Kerman Rug | Antique Red Floral Medallion | 1980s Fine Weave

This 8'6" x 10'6" Persian rug was woven in the 1980s in the classic Kerman manner: an open antique red field, a slim ivory and navy medallion floating at the center, and a deep ivory border carrying the whole weight of the drawing. It is hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation, the pile still full and even, the selvedges tight and the fringes original, which is what the Excellent condition grade reflects. At 102" x 126" it is a true room-size piece that settles a seating group without crowding it, and it sits comfortably among 8x11 Persian rugs for buyers measuring around a sofa and two chairs. Every rug we ship carries a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a narrow, elongated diamond medallion built from an 8 petal rosette core, tiered layers of ivory and navy leafwork, and small pendants that taper away at the top and bottom into delicate cypress-like finials. Around it the field stays open, which is the point of this drawing: the eye reads the medallion first, then travels out to the four densely worked corner spandrels, where bouquets of roses, carnations and serrated leaves crowd together on curling stems. The border system runs five bands deep, an ivory main band of alternating palmettes and vine scrolls flanked by narrow navy guard stripes and a fine reciprocal minor band. Detail photographs show how carefully the corners are resolved, with the border pattern turning cleanly rather than being cut off, a sign the weaver worked from a properly drawn cartoon.

A Color Palette of Antique Red, Blue and Ivory

The field is an antique red with a rose-salmon cast, softer and warmer than a hard crimson, and it shifts gently across the open ground the way good hand-spun wool does. Against it the blues do most of the work: a deep indigo navy in the outlines, medallion cores and guard stripes, and a lighter sky and teal blue in the flower heads and leaf fills that keeps the palette from turning heavy. The border ground is a warm ivory, closer to unbleached cream than white, and it frames the red field with real contrast while picking up small touches of soft green, apricot and rust in the palmettes. Ivory also outlines the medallion and the spandrel blossoms, so the drawing stays legible from across a room. It is a classic three-color Persian scheme, red, blue and ivory, and it works with mahogany, walnut, black metal and off-white walls without argument.

Persian Weaving and the Kerman Tradition

Kerman in southeast Persia gave the weaving world its most painterly floral vocabulary, the curved stem, the rose spray and the pictorial garden border, and that vocabulary traveled to workshops across the country. This piece follows that tradition closely, with the fine curvilinear drawing and open-field composition that collectors associate with Persian Kerman rugs. The back photograph tells the rest of the story: a dense, regular knot on a cotton foundation, with the pattern reading almost as sharply from the reverse as from the pile side, which is the honest test of a good weave. Wool of this quality, knotted this tightly, is why a 1980s Persian rug still presents as new after four decades of careful ownership, and if you want to understand how weavers, dyes and wear are read to place a piece in time, our guide on how to date an oriental rug walks through the same clues we used here.