8' x 11'9" Persian Nain Rug | Ivory All-Over Islimi Field | Wool & Silk, Perfect Condition

This one reads quiet from across the room and then rewards you at arm's length. The ivory field runs an unbroken arabesque with no medallion, so nothing interrupts the vine, and the silk outlining catches the light along the edge of every palmette and leaf as you walk past. Wool pile with silk detailing over a cotton foundation gives it substance without bulk, and at 8' x 11'9" it covers a seating group or a full dining table with the border still showing. The pile is full and even from end to end, the fringes are clean, and the condition is exactly as stated: perfect. Among Persian Nain rugs this ivory and navy formula is the classic one, and also the most livable, since it lifts a dark room instead of weighing it down. Every rug ships from our Freeport showroom with a certificate of authenticity recording origin, materials, size and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

The field is a true all-over composition. A slender navy vine sweeps through the ivory ground in long curved arcs, splitting into islimi scrollwork and broad serrated leaves, and hanging off that framework are lotus palmettes, tulip forms, 8 petal rosettes and tight clusters of small ivory blossoms. The drawing mirrors along both the length and the width, so a small rosette sits at the center point of the field with the same motif answering it above and below, giving the pattern order without ever pinning it to a medallion. The border system is layered: a wide ivory main band of palmettes on a running vine, flanked by narrow blue and olive guard stripes, then an outer band of paired blossoms. All 4 corners are resolved cleanly, the vine turning the angle without a broken repeat, which is a reliable sign of a good cartoon and a disciplined weaver.

The Color Palette: Ivory, Navy Blue and Olive

The ground is a warm ivory, closer to undyed cream than white, with faint tonal movement across the width that softens the large open areas. Against it the drawing works in three registers of blue: a navy so deep it reads almost black in the outlines, a mid denim blue in the leaves and vine, and a pale sky blue that lights up the smaller blossoms and the guard stripes. Olive green carries the larger leaves and one of the narrow bands, cooling the whole scheme. Supporting those are camel and taupe browns in the main border ground and in the palmette hearts, plus pinpoint accents of deep burgundy in the small flower centers along the guards. The silk is used selectively, on outlines and petal edges, so the pattern shifts between matte and bright depending on where you stand.

Nain: The Weaving Town and the Weave

Nain sits in central Persia on the western edge of the great desert, a few hours from Isfahan. The town built its name on finely woven wool cloth for cloaks, and only turned seriously to rugs in the 1930s, which is why Nain weaving arrived fully formed: it borrowed the curved-line drawing discipline of the Isfahan workshops and applied it to a lighter palette of its own. Nain grades its own fineness by the La system, the number of plies twisted in the warp, and the finer the grade the more hairline the outlines can be drawn. The evidence is on the back of this piece, where the knotting is small and regular enough to hold the vine as a continuous line rather than a stepped one. Practical too: an 8' x 11'9" sits squarely among large Persian rugs that anchor a formal living room.