9'3" x 13'2" Persian Feraghan Rug | Navy Medallion on Rust Field | 1940s, Excellent Condition

This is a genuine antique from the Feraghan plain of central Persia, woven in the 1940s and still carrying a full, even wool pile after roughly 80 years of life. The drawing is the classic Feraghan formula: a deep indigo lobed medallion floating on a rust field that is covered edge to edge with a fine ivory vine lattice, and four ivory corner spandrels that give the composition air. At 9'3" x 13'2" it is a true room size piece, handsome enough to anchor a formal room and tough enough to live under furniture. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity documenting origin, materials and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

The center holds an 8 lobed indigo medallion packed with small blossoms and leaf sprays, with a scalloped ivory cartouche at its heart around a single rosette. Above and below it sit stepped navy pendants that step down into a small diamond finial, a device the Feraghan weavers used to stretch the medallion along the length of a long rug. The rust field is not left open: it is filled with a delicate ivory vine lattice that links rosettes, serrated leaves and tiny palmettes in a repeat that reads as an all over pattern from standing height and only resolves into individual flowers up close. The 4 corner spandrels are drawn on ivory and each carries a large shaded boteh alongside curling leaves. Three borders frame the field, a wide indigo main band of alternating palmettes and flowering branches flanked by a narrow rust vine stripe and a reciprocal ivory guard, with a sawtooth outer stripe closing the edge.

A Rust, Indigo and Olive Green Palette

The field is a warm rust that leans toward terracotta and brick, with the gentle tonal variation that natural dyes and hand-spun wool produce, so the ground breathes rather than sitting flat. Against it the medallion and main border read as a near black indigo blue, which is what gives the rug its depth and makes the ivory vine work jump forward. The secondary colors are the pleasure of a good Feraghan: olive and sage green in the border palmettes and leaf tips, a soft salmon rose in the flower heads, pale sky blue in the smaller blossoms, and clear ivory in the spandrels, guard stripe and lattice. Small touches of apricot and pale gold appear in the border rosettes. It is a warm, saturated, traditional palette that sits well with dark woods, leather, brass and natural stone.

Feraghan Weaving on the Arak Plain

Feraghan is a district of villages on the plain north of Arak in central Persia, the same weaving country that produced Mahal and the village of Sarouk, and it built its name in the 19th century on finely drawn floral fields in indigo and rust. This piece is woven in that tradition on a cotton foundation with a dense, closely clipped wool pile, the low even nap you can see in the corner and back photographs, which is exactly why Feraghan rugs from this period survive decades of traffic with their drawing intact. Collectors who know Persian Sarough rugs will recognize the family resemblance in the palette and the border layout, while the fine lattice field is pure Feraghan. The wool has aged into a low sheen that photographs read as patina, and the structure, selvages and fringes are all sound, which is how you date an antique Oriental rug and judge whether it has years left in it. Among large Persian rugs of this vintage, an antique in this condition at this size is not easy to replace.