8' x 11' Semi-Antique Persian Mashad Rug | Lilihan Floral Medallion | Raspberry Red Field, Excellent Condition

A semi-antique Persian Mashad rug that does what the best pieces from Khorasan do: it holds a huge, open raspberry red field without ever looking empty. The 8' x 11' format gives you a full room of that red, with a dark navy medallion anchoring the center and a stacked navy and camel border framing all 4 sides. Hand-knotted on a cotton foundation with a 3/8 inch wool pile, the weave is firm, the pile is even from end to end, and the ivory cotton fringe and selvedges are intact, as the reverse photograph shows. The wool has the slight sheen that older Khorasan fleece develops after decades of settling, and the condition is excellent with no restoration to report. It ships with a certificate of authenticity recording size, origin, materials and construction.

Design and Motifs

The drawing is the Lilihan floral type as Khorasan weavers adapted it: a broad, layered medallion built around an 8 petal rosette, ringed by pink and ivory blossoms, then by a scalloped navy halo that breaks into hooked lobes at the sides. Above and below the medallion sit 2 stepped pendants, each closed with a small bouquet, and the field between them carries loosely scattered floral sprays rather than a tight all over repeat, which is what keeps the red reading as space. The 4 spandrels are filled with curling blue vine, large feathered leaves and tiny squared cartouches at the extreme corners. The border system runs 3 bands deep: a wide navy main border of alternating palmettes and star rosettes, flanked by camel guard stripes of running vine, with fine sawtooth ribbons separating every band. At 8' x 11' the pattern reads correctly from a doorway, which is part of why this sits in the most practical band of 8x11 Persian rugs.

The Color Story: Raspberry Red, Near Black Navy and Camel

The field is the cochineal raspberry red that Mashad is known for, a cool red leaning toward cerise and plum rather than the warm brick of village weaving, with gentle abrash giving it depth across the width. Against it, the medallion and main border read as black at a glance and resolve into a very dark indigo navy up close, which is why the specification sheet records the palette as red and black. The relief comes from the secondary tones: camel and old gold in the guard stripes, soft salmon pink and ivory in the rosettes and blossoms, a muted teal green in the leafwork and spandrel vines, and touches of aubergine in the smaller flowerheads. Ivory outlining traces the medallion and every border band, so the whole piece stays legible instead of going muddy. It is a strong, saturated rug and it behaves like one, grounding pale walls and oak floors the way the best red and burgundy Persian rugs do.

Mashad, Khorasan and the Weave

Mashad is the great weaving city of Khorasan in northeast Persia, a pilgrimage center whose workshops have produced large formal medallion rugs for well over a century. Khorasan fleece is long stapled and lustrous, which is why Mashad pile takes cochineal red so well and why these rugs age into a soft glow instead of going dry. This example is workshop weaving rather than fine city work: a firm cotton warp and weft, a clipped 3/8 inch pile, and a knot count aimed at durability and scale rather than miniature detail, which is exactly the right choice for a floral medallion covering 88 square feet. The back photograph shows a regular, tightly packed grid with no bowing and clean, original finished ends. Nothing here has been cut down or reduced: it is a full 8' x 11' Mashad in the proportions the loom intended.