9'5" x 13'2" Persian Najafabad Rug | Isfahan Floral Medallion Design | Semi-Antique 1980s

Woven in the 1980s in the Isfahan region of central Persia, this rug takes the classical Esfahan drawing and puts it on a floor-scale format. The 9'5" x 13'2" field is a soft raspberry red, filled corner to corner with scrolling vine, palmettes and lotus blossoms, and anchored by an ivory and navy starburst medallion. The pile is a fine 3/8" wool on a cotton foundation, still full and even across the whole surface, and the drawing has the patient, curved line that separates Isfahan-tradition weaving from village work. It is one of the more usable proportions we carry, sitting right in the popular 10x13 Persian rug range, and it ships with a certificate of authenticity documenting origin, age, materials and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a many-lobed starburst medallion: an ivory rosette core ringed by turquoise hearts and small rose-pink blossoms, then a navy ground carrying palmettes and split-leaf arabesques, then a second ivory halo of leaf tips. Slender navy pendant finials run off the medallion top and bottom, and the same navy and ivory drawing repeats as quarter medallion spandrels in all 4 corners, so the composition reads as one continuous design rather than a medallion dropped onto a plain field. Between those anchors the red ground is packed with an all-over lattice of curling vines, lanceolate leaves, 8 petal rosettes, lotus heads and large serrated palmettes, each outlined with a thin dark line that keeps the density legible. The wide main border on navy alternates big ivory and gold palmettes with rosette clusters on a meandering vine, framed by narrow guard stripes of small flower heads. Look closely at the field and you will find tiny birds and paisley boteh tucked into the vine work, a signature flourish of the Isfahan drawing tradition.

A Soft Red Field with Navy, Ivory and Turquoise

The dominant color is a soft red with a raspberry cast, warmer and lighter than the brick reds of the northwest Persian villages, and it carries a gentle natural variation across the width that only shows in raking light. Against it the main border is a deep navy that reads nearly black from a standing height and opens up into indigo when you crouch down. The third color doing most of the work is ivory, running from a creamy parchment in the medallion core and spandrels to a warmer camel gold in the border palmettes. Turquoise and teal appear in real quantity here, filling leaf interiors, flower hearts and the small hooks around the medallion, which is what gives the rug its cool, jewel-like sparkle instead of a flat red and blue reading. Supporting tones include soft rose and salmon on the vine work, olive and sage green on the leaves, a few notes of brown and rust, and small touches of chocolate in the outlines. In a room the overall impression is warm red from across the floor and a mosaic of blue, cream and green up close.

Najafabad and the Isfahan Weaving Tradition

Najafabad is a weaving town a short drive west of Isfahan in central Persia, and it works squarely inside the Isfahan school: the same cartoon-driven curvilinear designs, the same medallion and spandrel formula, the same floral vocabulary that came out of the Safavid court workshops. What Najafabad added was scale and durability. Where the city ateliers concentrate on small, extremely fine pieces, Najafabad looms produced room-size and larger rugs like this one, with a slightly heavier 3/8" wool pile on a cotton foundation built to take furniture and foot traffic for generations. The reverse of this rug shows a tight, regular knot with the pattern reading clearly on the back, which is the honest test of a well-drawn piece. For collectors who want the background on the drawing style and its workshop history, our complete guide to Isfahan rugs covers how these designs are planned and knotted. Forty-odd years old and still in perfect condition, this is a semi-antique that has aged into its color rather than out of it.