9'11" x 13'1" Persian Sarough Rug | Navy Field with Ivory & Rose Medallion | Semi Antique

This is a full room-size Persian Sarough measuring 9'11" x 13'1", hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation and carrying a 3/8" pile that still stands up evenly from one end to the other. On the floor it photographs almost square in the shoulders, which is exactly what a buyer looking at 10x13 Persian rugs wants for a seating group that runs wide rather than long. The back shows a tight, regular knot grid with the original selvages intact and clean ivory fringe at both ends, and the handle is firm without being board-stiff. We bought it as a direct import, and it ships with our certificate of authenticity confirming the hand-knotted construction and Persian origin.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a large stepped-outline medallion built in concentric rings: a small rosette at the very core, then a ring of ivory cartouche shapes, then broad red lobes and ivory points that radiate out like a 16 point star. Around it the field is filled edge to edge with curling arabesque vines, lotus palmettes, serrated leaves and small bouquets, drawn in the slightly rounded, fleshy style that is the signature of the Persian Sarough repertoire. Four corner spandrels mirror the medallion with stepped ivory and teal outlines, so the composition reads clearly even from a standing height. The main border is wide and carries a continuous vine with alternating palmettes and flowering vases, framed by narrow reciprocal guard stripes and a fine ivory meander on the inner edge, finished with a plain navy outer edge that squares the whole piece off.

A Navy Field Against Rose Pink and Ivory

The field is a deep navy blue that leans slightly aubergine in raking light, dark enough that the drawing sits on it like embroidery rather than competing with it. Against that ground the weaver used a clear rose pink, lighter and cooler than a true brick red, for the medallion lobes and for the entire main border, which is the color that gives this rug its personality. Ivory does the structural work: it outlines the medallion points, the spandrels and the inner guard stripe, and it keeps the dark field from closing in. Supporting tones include a soft teal and peacock blue in the guard borders and the border palmettes, warm apricot and old gold in the small blossoms, a touch of sage green in the leaf work, and ivory fringe at both ends. Close up, the wool shows gentle abrash, the natural tonal shift that comes from hand-dyed yarn, which is what makes the navy look like depth instead of a flat printed color.

Sarough Weaving and Quality

Sarough sits in the Arak district of central Persia, and for well over a century its weavers have been the ones American buyers turned to for durable room-size floral rugs. The town's reputation rests on a heavy, tightly packed wool pile on a cotton foundation: dense enough to hold a crisp curved line through the medallion and vine scrolls, and heavy enough to survive generations of traffic in a formal room. You can read that construction here in the straight, even rows on the reverse and in the way the pile stands upright rather than lying over. The drawing is workshop-level in its symmetry, with the medallion centered and the four corners resolving identically, while the palette and the slightly fleshy floral forms place it squarely in the classic Sarough tradition rather than a later commercial copy.