9'5" x 11'11" Persian Sarough Rug | All-Over Floral with Ivory Star Medallion | Semi-Antique, Excellent

This is a semi-antique room size Persian Sarough rug measuring 9'5" x 11'11", hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation with a 3/8" pile that still stands full and even across the whole field. It sits squarely in the most useful of all 9x12 Persian rugs footprints, and the condition is genuinely excellent: clean selvages, original ends with the white cotton fringe intact, and no thin spots or repairs anywhere in the drawing. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity that records the origin, materials, size and knotting, so what arrives at your door is documented as handmade in Persia.

Design and Motifs

The field is a true all-over floral composition rather than an open medallion layout. Scrolling vines run the length of the rug and carry palmettes, curled saz leaves, rosettes and small five petal blossoms, with the vine work dense enough that the eye never finds a bare patch. At the center sits an 8 point star medallion, navy blue with an ivory inner star and a cluster of four small blossoms at its heart, framed by lobed navy cartouches that echo the same star geometry outward into the field. The 4 corners carry matching navy spandrels drawn in the same vocabulary, so the pattern reads as one continuous garden. The main border is a navy band of reciprocal vine and palmette work, flanked by narrow guard stripes of ivory meander and small red blossom heads, and the whole thing finishes in a plain red outer edge that keeps the busy drawing contained.

Color: Reddish Orange, Navy Blue and Ivory

The ground is a warm reddish orange, closer to tomato and terracotta than to burgundy, and it carries a soft abrash that shifts a shade lighter and darker down the length of the rug in the way good vegetable-toned wool does. Against that ground the deep navy blue of the medallion, spandrels and main border does the structural work, dark enough to read almost black in low light and clearly blue in daylight. Ivory is the highlight color: it lights the inner star, the guard stripe meanders and the small blossom outlines, and it is what keeps the red and navy from going heavy. Around those three named colors the weaver worked in a mid teal and a light sky blue on the larger leaves and palmettes, plus a soft mustard gold on scattered flower heads and along one guard stripe, with small touches of salmon and dark brown in the vine detail. The overall effect is warm and saturated, a red rug that carries plenty of cool blue to balance it.

Sarough Origin and Weaving Quality

Sarough is a weaving district in the Arak region of central Persia, part of the same weaving belt that produced the great Sultanabad and Mahal carpets, and it built its reputation on two things: heavy, long-wearing wool and a tight, disciplined knot. This piece shows both. The back photograph shows straight, even rows on a cotton warp with no pulled or corrected areas, and the pile is short and dense rather than shaggy, which is why a semi-antique Sarough of this age still looks this crisp. Sarough drawing tends to be a little squarer and more deliberate than the flowing curves of a workshop city rug, and you can see that here in the stepped outlines of the star medallion and the firm, repeating rhythm of the border vine. That combination of stout wool, close knotting and a full all-over pattern is exactly what makes these rugs the practical choice for a high traffic room and a rug that will outlast the furniture placed on it.