9'4" x 13'4" Persian Nain Rug | Red Field Wool & Silk Medallion | Never Used

Most Nain weaving leaves the loom on an ivory or pale blue ground, which is exactly why this one stops you: a deep red field, drawn with the same needle-fine vine work the town is famous for. This Persian Nain rug measures 9'4" x 13'4", is hand-knotted in wool with silk used to outline the flowers and vines, and sits on a cotton foundation. It dates to the 2000's and has never been on a floor, so the pile still stands full and even from edge to edge and the ivory selvages and fringes are untouched. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity recording origin, materials and measurements.

Design and Motifs

The field is governed by a 16 point star medallion built in concentric rings, with a small rosette at the dead center and a narrow navy outline holding the whole shape together. Two matching pendants extend along the long axis, and quartered versions of the same medallion anchor the 4 corners, so the layout reads as one continuous composition rather than a motif dropped onto a background. Around and through it runs an all-over lattice of thin scrolling vines carrying palmettes, lotus blossoms, split leaves and small curled paisley forms, each one outlined in silk so the drawing lifts clean off the red. The main border repeats a large rosette and arabesque cadence on ivory, framed by several guard stripes of paired blossoms and a fine reciprocal edge. The curvilinear drawing is precise enough that the same flower repeats across 13 feet of length without losing its shape.

A Detailed Look at the Color

The ground is a true deep red, closer to a saturated madder tone than to orange or to burgundy, and it holds steady across the whole field without abrash. Against it the vinework is drawn in ivory and soft beige, with navy blue reserved for the medallion outlines, the stem lines and the darkest border details. Light blue does most of the intermediate work, filling petal centers and leaf halves so the floral scrollwork shades gradually from near white to deep indigo instead of jumping between two tones. The medallion core carries a quiet green, the only place that color appears, and small touches of camel and tan warm the flower heads in the close photographs. The wide ivory border cools the perimeter and keeps the red contained, which is what allows a rug this large and this saturated to sit calmly in a room.

Nain Origin and Weaving Quality

Nain sits on the western edge of the great salt desert, east of Isfahan, and its looms are young by Persian standards. The town wove fine wool cloth for generations and only turned to carpet weaving in the 1930's, bringing the same thread count discipline and the same curvilinear Isfahan drawing tradition with it. Nain weavers build on a cotton warp and weft, clip the pile very short, and thread silk through the outlines so the pattern stays sharp, a method that only works at high knot density. The ruler photograph shows how tight the knotting is here, with the flower heads in the ivory border resolved cleanly at a scale most workshops cannot hold. On a rug of 9'4" x 13'4", that consistency across roughly 124 square feet of field is the real measure of the workshop behind it.