9'7" x 16'3" Persian Najafabad Rug | Signed Isfahan Medallion Design | 1980s Oversize

A signed workshop piece from the 1980s, this 9'7" x 16'3" Persian Najafabad rug is drawn in the full Isfahan manner: a single star medallion floating on a deep red field of curling vinework, contained by a broad navy border. It is hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation, the pile still full and even across the whole surface, with the weaver's cartouche woven into the upper border rather than applied later. At just over 16 feet long it belongs in the class of oversize Persian rugs that anchor a long formal room end to end, and it ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming origin, materials and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

The centre holds a 16 point star medallion built in concentric rings: a small rosette at the core, a dark blue disc around it, then a ring of 8 heart-shaped lobes filled with ivory and pale blue leaf forms, and finally an outer wreath of split palmettes and curling tendrils. Slender pendant finials run off the medallion toward each end of the field. The ground around it is a true all-over drawing rather than plain open space, packed with Shah Abbas palmettes, feathered saz leaves, rosettes and small buds strung along thin arabesque vines that curve rather than turn corners. Large pale blue spandrels with ivory cloudband scrolls fill the 4 corners of the field. The main border carries alternating palmettes and blossoming rosettes on a continuous navy vine, framed by ivory and light blue guard stripes and a fine reciprocal outer stripe that keeps the whole 16 foot perimeter crisp.

A Deep Madder Red Field Against Navy and Ivory

The field reads as a deep madder red, warm and slightly brick toned rather than orange, and it is dark enough that the pale drawing on top of it stands out at a distance. Against that red the palette works in cool tones: a soft sky blue that carries most of the vinework, a chalky ivory for the medallion lobes and cloudbands, and a dark indigo navy that outlines the motifs and fills the main border. Olive green appears in the small leaves, with occasional rust and terracotta in the flower heads and a soft brown shading the larger palmettes. The medallion itself is the lightest part of the rug, ivory over pale blue, so it lifts clearly off the red. The navy border grounds all of it and gives the piece a formal, evening-room weight, while the ivory guard stripes keep the outline from going heavy.

Najafabad, the Weaving Town West of Isfahan

Najafabad sits a short drive west of Isfahan in central Persia and weaves to the same cartoons and the same curvilinear discipline as the city, which is why pieces like this one are sold and catalogued within the Isfahan group. Where the finest city work runs to silk-foundation weaves at extreme knot counts, Najafabad workshops traditionally built on a sturdy cotton foundation with a slightly fuller wool pile, giving a rug that keeps the drawing of Isfahan rugs but takes real traffic under a dining table or across an open living room. Quality here is judged on the line: whether the vines actually curve, whether the medallion is symmetrical across the full 9'7" width, whether the border turns cleanly at all 4 corners. This weaver signed the work in the top border, which in the Isfahan tradition means a named atelier standing behind the piece rather than an anonymous commercial run.