9'10" x 13'1" Persian Kerman Lavar Rug | Floral Medallion | 1980s, Excellent Condition

A Kerman Lavar from the 1980s that has been kept the way collectors hope to find them: full pile edge to edge, crisp selvedges, clean pink cotton fringe, and no sun-faded panel anywhere across the field. At 9'10" x 13'1" it lands exactly in the 10x13 Persian rug class that most formal rooms are measured for, so the full borders stay visible past the furniture rather than disappearing under it. The weave is hand-knotted wool on a cotton foundation, and the back shown in the close-up photographs reads evenly knot for knot, with the drawing as legible from behind as it is from the front. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity recording origin, materials, size and age.

Design and Motifs

The centre holds a multi-lobed star medallion, ivory at its heart, ringed by navy cartouches and finished top and bottom with slender pendants. Around it the field is not left open: it is filled completely with a fine curvilinear vine carrying small 5 petal blossoms, rosettes, bud clusters and serrated leaves that mirror perfectly across both axes. The 4 corners carry broad sky blue spandrels drawn with their own vase and palmette groupings, outlined in ivory so they read as separate panels against the red. Framing all of it is a wide navy main border of alternating lotus palmettes and flowering stems, flanked by ivory and sky blue guard stripes, with a narrow pearl-and-vine minor band keeping the transition tidy. The whole composition is classic Lavar drawing: no straight lines, every motif resolved in curves.

A Palette of Crimson, Navy and Sky Blue

The ground is a true cochineal-leaning crimson, deep rather than orange, and it is the anchor the rest of the palette plays against. Scattered across it are hundreds of pale sky blue blossoms, which is what gives this piece its unusual lift and separates it from the heavier reds you expect from red and burgundy Persian rugs. Working between them are soft ivory and butter cream for the vine work, rose pink for the larger flower heads, olive and grass green for the leaves, and a touch of saffron gold in the palmette centres. The main border inverts the scheme completely, setting the same flowers on deep navy, while the corner spandrels sit in a lighter cornflower blue. Seen up close the wool still carries a clear sheen, so the colours shift slightly as you walk around the rug.

Kerman and the Lavar Tradition

Kerman sits in southeastern Persia and has been a weaving centre for centuries, known above all for floral drawing and for pictorial garden work that few other towns attempt. Lavar, from the village of Ravar north of the city, is the name the trade gives the finest of that output: more knots, thinner yarn, and drawing detailed enough to carry tiny blossoms across a field this wide without the pattern breaking down. The wool from this region is naturally soft and takes dye deeply, which is why Kerman reds hold their saturation for decades rather than going dusty. This example is a workshop piece in that tradition, woven on a cotton foundation with a tight, regular knot and a pile depth that has barely moved in 40 years.