8'6" x 11'10" Persian Kerman Rug | Burgundy Field, Navy Floral Border | Estate Piece

Deep burgundy carries the entire field of this 8'6" x 11'10" Persian Kerman, and every other element is arranged around it: a compact ivory and rose diamond medallion at center, wide flower-filled spandrels reaching in from the 4 corners, and a navy floral border that closes the composition. The pile is wool on a cotton foundation, hand-knotted in southeast Persia, and the surface still carries the quiet sheen that good Kerman wool holds for decades. It is an estate find in very good condition and ships with a certificate of authenticity. The footprint falls squarely in the 9x12 Persian rugs range, wide enough to sit under a full sofa group with all legs on the wool.

Design and Motifs

The drawing is classic Kerman floral: curvilinear, botanical and drawn as individual blossoms rather than as a rigid lattice. At the center sits a small stepped diamond medallion, its navy core holding a cluster of ivory and rose blooms, ringed first by a band of open roses and then by a scalloped wreath of buds and leaves. Above and below the medallion, 2 pendant bouquets float free on the plain ground, and the burgundy space left open around them is what gives the rug its calm. The corner spandrels are the opposite: dense ivory and rose thickets of roses, carnations and serrated leaves that flow inward in deep cloud-like scallops. The main border runs a navy ground packed with rose palmettes and turning vines, flanked by narrow ivory guard stripes carrying small repeating flower heads, the detached spray drawing that collectors associate with Persian Sarouk work as much as with Kerman. The back photograph shows the knotting to be even and tight across the border, with the pattern reading clearly from the reverse.

The Burgundy, Navy, Ivory and Green Palette

The field is a true burgundy, a wine red with a plum undertone rather than the brick or tomato reds of village weaving, and it deepens or lifts depending on the direction of the pile. Against it, the border ground reads near black navy, an inky midnight blue that only shows itself as blue in close light. Between those 2 dark tones sit the soft colors: ivory and cream in the spandrels and guard stripes, and a wide range of pinks from pale blush through salmon to a dusty rose in the larger palmettes. Green appears in small quantities and does its job quietly, a muted sage and teal used for leaves, calyxes and the outlines of buds, with an occasional soft gold blossom in the border corners. Cotton fringe at both ends is clean ivory. If you are searching by tone, this piece belongs with red and burgundy Persian rugs and will hold its own against dark wood, brass and warm white walls.

Kerman Weaving in Southeast Persia

Kerman sits in the southeast of Persia, a high desert city that has been weaving for export longer than almost any other Persian center and built its name on floral drawing rather than geometry. Kerman weavers work from full cartoons, which is why the curved line here never breaks and why the wreath around the medallion stays perfectly circular across 8'6" of width. The local wool is long-stapled and takes dye with unusual depth, which is what produces a burgundy this saturated without turning muddy. Weavers there use the asymmetric knot on a cotton warp and weft, and the resulting fabric is supple, heavy enough to lie flat and durable enough for daily traffic. Pieces of this type were woven in quantity for the American market through the mid 20th century and were often placed alongside Persian Sarouk rugs in the same rooms, which is exactly how this one came back to us out of an estate, with the pile still standing and the colors intact.