9'7" x 14'3" Persian Pictorial Rug | Hunting Scene with Animal Figures | Red Field, Blue Spandrels

This is a pictorial rug in the grand manner, a true room-size piece whose whole surface is populated with living creatures. Hand-knotted entirely by hand in wool on a cotton foundation, it measures 9'7" x 14'3" and sits comfortably in the 10x14 Persian rugs class, which means it will cover the seating area of a large living room or a long formal dining table with chairs pulled out. The 3/8" pile is even and full across the entire field, the selvedges and fringe are intact, and the back photograph shows a straight, regular knotting line with no repairs or re-weaves. Condition is excellent. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming it is a genuine hand-knotted Persian rug, with the size, material and origin recorded.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a dark lobed medallion drawn out of split palmettes and confronting animal heads, with a pendant rising above and below it into the open field. Around that medallion the field becomes a hunting ground: mounted riders, leaping deer and gazelles, hounds, long-tailed birds, cypress and flowering trees, all scattered in loose rows rather than a rigid repeat, so the eye keeps finding new figures. The 4 corners are filled by large blue spandrel panels, each one a small scene in itself with a seated figure, cattle, a tethered animal and a tent or pavilion. The main border carries its own procession of ivory birds, cranes and running beasts between red rosettes and curling vine, framed by narrow guard stripes of small flowerheads. It is a storytelling drawing, closer to a painted cartoon than to a geometric village pattern, and it rewards walking around the rug instead of viewing it from one side.

The Red and Blue Color Scheme

The field is a clear, saturated madder red that stays warm rather than turning pink, and it carries a soft sheen where the wool catches light across the 14'3" length. Set against it, the 4 corner spandrels are a pale sky blue, a genuinely unusual choice at this scale and the single feature that makes the rug memorable; the contrast between hot red and cool blue is what pulls the corners forward. The medallion and the main border run to a very dark aubergine that reads nearly black in low light and opens up to deep plum in daylight, as the border close-up shows. Working across all of it are ivory and cream for the animals, birds and outlines, a strong saffron gold for the cattle, riders and tree trunks, and smaller notes of olive green, brick and light blue inside the flowerheads. The palette is layered but disciplined: 2 dominant colors, one dark frame, and the ivory and gold doing all the drawing.

Persian Origin and Weaving Quality

Pictorial hunting-ground designs belong to the oldest and most ambitious part of the Persian repertoire, descended from Safavid court cartoons in which the garden and the hunt were drawn with figures, animals and trees instead of simple repeating flowers. A field this crowded cannot be woven from memory; it requires a workshop cartoon followed knot by knot, and a weaver patient enough to render a horse, a bird or a human face in wool at the scale of a few knots. The back of this rug shows what that discipline looks like, with tight even rows on a cotton foundation and the design reading clearly from the reverse. The wool has the dry, springy handle of good highland fleece, which is why a 3/8" pile still stands up fully after years of life. Sold as Persian without a workshop signature, it is valued for exactly what you can see: the drawing, the color and the sheer number of figures held together across 9'7" x 14'3".