9'10" x 13'2" Persian Sarough Rug | Red Orange Floral Field, Navy Borders | Excellent Condition

This is a full room-size floral piece from the Arak weaving district, and it reads exactly the way good Persian Sarough rugs are supposed to read: a warm red orange ground, a navy lobed medallion sitting dead centre, and heavy navy corner spandrels that frame the field without crowding it. The wool pile is clipped to 3/8", low enough to hold the fine drawing of the vine work and dense enough underfoot that the rug lies dead flat with no ripple along the edges. At 9'10" x 13'2" it covers a standard 10 by 13 floor plan, and buyers comparing 10x13 Persian rugs will notice the selvedges are tight, the fringe is clean and even at both ends, and the pile stands up uniformly across the whole surface. Condition is excellent. A signed certificate of authenticity ships with the rug, confirming it as a hand-knotted piece made in Persia.

Design and Motifs

The layout is the classic Sarouk formula worked at a high level of detail. A navy blue medallion with a scalloped, lobed outline holds a stepped ivory and sky blue rosette at its core, ringed by 8 small palmettes and a fine white outline that separates it cleanly from the field. Four matching navy spandrels close the corners, each filled with curling leaves, cypress-like sprays and pale blue cartouche shapes. Between medallion and corners the field is completely covered by a curvilinear all-over vine, with rosettes, serrated palmettes, tulip heads and single blossoms drawn on thin scrolling stems that mirror top to bottom and left to right. The border system runs 5 stripes deep: a wide navy main band carrying alternating palmettes and vase-like floral groups, flanked by ivory guard stripes of connected rosettes, and a narrow pale blue reciprocal line that separates the bands. Nothing in the drawing is rushed; the flowers keep their shape right into the corners, which is where cheaper weaving usually breaks down.

A Closer Look at the Colors

The field is a warm red orange, closer to terracotta and brick than to a true crimson, and it shifts slightly with the nap so one end reads a touch deeper than the other. Against that ground the navy blue is very dark, almost inky, and it does the structural work: medallion, spandrels and main border all sit in the same navy, which pulls the eye through the rug. Ivory is the third color and the one that gives the drawing its clarity, used for outlines, for the medallion centre and for both guard borders. Inside the florals there is a light sky blue, a muted olive green in the leaves and stems, a soft cocoa brown, and small touches of rose and clear white in the blossom heads. The palette is deliberately balanced: strong on the field and border, gentle in the detail, so the rug carries a room without fighting furniture. Red orange, navy and ivory sit easily with dark walnut, brass and cream upholstery.

Origin and Weaving Quality

Sarough takes its name from a village north of Arak in west central Persia, in the old Sultanabad weaving country, and the name has long stood for weight and durability rather than showy fineness. Weavers there work the Persian knot on a cotton foundation and beat the wefts down hard, which is why a Sarough feels substantial in the hand and why 3/8" of dense wool pile behaves so well under furniture. The local wool is springy and takes dye deeply, so the red orange field keeps its warmth instead of going flat. What separates a good Sarough from an ordinary one is the drawing: the curved vine and the lobed medallion need enough knots per square inch to stay smooth, and on this piece the scrollwork holds its curve, the border palmettes repeat evenly along all 4 sides, and the medallion is centred true to the field. That combination of village toughness and workshop-level drawing is exactly what makes these rugs last through generations of daily use.