9'10" x 13'5" Persian Sarouk Rug | Signed Classic Medallion | Red Orange and Mid Blue Wool

This is a room size Sarouk in the classic central Persian formula, hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation and finished at a 3/8" pile that still stands full and even across all 13 feet of length. The weaver signed the work in a small ivory cartouche set into the blue guard band, which is the mark of a workshop piece rather than an anonymous village commission. At 9'10" x 13'5" it sits squarely in the most useful large format there is, so if you are comparing 10x13 Persian rugs for a main living space this one covers the floor without crowding the walls. Condition is excellent, the sides and fringes are sound, and every rug we ship carries a certificate of authenticity confirming it as a genuine hand-knotted Persian piece.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a large star medallion built from 16 radiating points, each point filled with small lozenges and rosettes and ringed by a band of navy cartouches carrying pink and blue blossoms. From the medallion the field opens into a dense all over scroll of palmettes, lotus heads, serrated acanthus leaves and thin flowering vines that curve back on themselves rather than repeating in strict rows, which is the drawing style that separates a workshop Sarouk from a simpler village copy. Pale spandrels anchor the 4 corners with their own floral sprays, and the main border runs a navy ground carrying a turtle palmette and vine scroll, flanked by mid blue minor guards of small rosettes. The detail photograph of the corner shows how the artist kept the vine unbroken through the turn, a small piece of discipline that only shows up in good cartoon work.

A Red Orange Field Read Against Ivory and Mid Blue

The field is a warm red orange, closer to brick and terracotta than to a cold true red, and it carries a soft wool sheen that shifts a shade or two as you walk around it. Ivory does the outlining work: it draws the vine stems, lights the centers of the larger blossoms and lifts the spandrels away from the field. Mid blue runs through the medallion petals, the guard stripes and the palmettes in the field, while the main border drops to a deep navy that frames everything and keeps the busy field from spilling outward. Accents of soft gold, dusty rose, pale green and a light sky blue appear in the small flower heads, and in the close-up of the medallion you can see gold and cream carrying the middle while navy holds the outer ring. It is a warm palette overall, easy to sit beside cream walls, walnut furniture and antique brass.

Sarough Weaving in Central Persia

Sarough is a weaving district in central Persia near Arak, long organized around workshops that supplied the export trade with heavy, tightly packed room size pieces. The signature of the group is a thick wool pile beaten down hard on a cotton foundation, which is why Persian Sarough rugs have a reputation for surviving decades of family traffic and still holding their drawing. The back of this piece, shown against the ruler, reads as a clean and regular weave with straight rows and no slippage, the kind of structure that keeps a 13 foot rug lying flat. Add the woven cartouche in the border and you have a piece that was made to be identified with its maker, which is not something the trade grade weavings of the same region ever bothered with.