9'10" x 13'10" Persian Sarough Rug | Red All Over Floral Field with Ivory Border | Excellent Wool Pile

This is a full room size Persian Sarough rug, hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation and finished with a dense 3/8" pile that still stands up straight across the whole 9'10" x 13'10" surface. The drawing is the classic Sarough formula: a red field packed edge to edge with detached floral sprays and curling vines, a small lobed medallion holding the center, and a wide ivory border that frames the whole composition. Condition is excellent, with even pile, straight sides and clean ivory fringe as shown in the corner and back photographs. It sits comfortably in the 10 x 14 Persian rug range, which means it can carry a large seating group or a 10 seat table without looking crowded. Every rug we ship leaves with a certificate of authenticity confirming the origin, the materials and the hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

The field is a true all over floral, drawn in the detached-spray style that made Sarough weaving famous in American homes. Open red ground is broken up by 8 petal rosettes, tulip and carnation heads, split palmettes and long serrated leaves, all connected by thin curling vines that scroll back on themselves in tight hooks. At the center sits a small lobed medallion with an ivory core, ringed by pink rosettes and flanked by 4 leaf-shaped lobes, with slender pendants reaching up and down the length. The corner spandrels repeat the same vocabulary at a larger scale rather than being left plain, so the pattern never breaks. The main border is a wide ivory band carrying alternating palmettes and flower clusters, contained on both sides by narrow reciprocal guard stripes and a fine minor border of repeating stars and rosettes, with a plain red outer edge finishing the rug.

A Close Look at the Colors

Red and ivory carry the rug, but the detail work is where it gets interesting. The ground is a deep blue-toned red, the kind of cool raspberry red that reads as brick in daylight and darkens toward wine under lamplight. Against it, the flowers are worked in ivory, soft salmon pink, a clear rose red and several greens, from a dusty teal to a muted olive khaki that gives the leaves their depth. The central medallion breaks away from the field with an unusual aubergine purple ground and a blush ivory core dotted in oxblood, and that same purple returns in the guard stripes and in the shading of a few of the larger palmettes. Charcoal and near-black outlines keep every blossom legible, while the wide border shifts to a warm ivory cream that lifts the whole piece and keeps 9'10" x 13'10" of red from feeling heavy in a room.

Sarough Weaving and Quality

Sarough is a weaving village in the Markazi region of west central Persia, near Arak, and its looms have been producing floor rugs for the western market for well over a century. The house style is a stout cotton foundation, a heavy wool pile beaten down hard, and a floral drawing that stays readable at arm's length rather than chasing miniature detail. That combination is why Sarough rugs of this type end up in family rooms and dining rooms and are still there 40 years later. On this piece the knotting is even and consistent from end to end, the back photograph shows clean, tight rows with no bulges or crooked lines, and the 3/8" pile still has enough body to spring back underfoot. It is a working room size rug built on village standards, not a fragile display piece.