9'8" x 12'10" Persian Arak Sultanabad Rug | Navy Blue Allover Floral Field | Ivory Medallion | Semi-Antique

A semi-antique room-size piece from the Arak district of central Persia, woven in the Sultanabad manner on a cotton foundation with a hand-spun wool pile. The field is a deep navy blue packed edge to edge with flowering vinework, held together by a small ivory and rose medallion and framed by a broad red tulip and palmette border. At 9'8" x 12'10" it covers a full living room or a large dining table with chairs pulled out, which is the practical reason most of our buyers shop 10x13 Persian rugs in the first place. The pile is even and full with no thin areas, the selvages and fringe are original and sound, and the rug ships with our certificate of authenticity confirming it as a hand-knotted Persian weaving.

Design and Motifs

The drawing is a classic Arak Sultanabad composition: a dense allover floral field of serrated leaves, curling split arabesques, 8 petal rosettes and open roses, all linked by a continuous vine that never quite repeats where you expect it to. At the center sits a modest ivory cartouche-shaped medallion filled with a red lobed rosette, and the same ivory ground returns in the 4 corner spandrels so the eye reads a medallion layout and an allover layout at the same time. The main border is the best part of the rug: a wide red band carrying alternating ivory palmette fans and small upright tulips, flanked by narrow guard stripes of reciprocal sawtooth and a tiny X and diamond minor stripe. The outermost edge finishes in plain navy, which closes the whole pattern cleanly instead of letting it bleed off the sides.

Navy Blue, Red and Ivory Color Palette

The ground is a deep indigo navy that leans slightly violet under daylight and goes nearly black under lamplight, which is what gives this rug its reputation among navy blue Persian rugs for grounding a bright room. Against it the florals run through a range of warm pinks and salmon roses into a strong brick and cherry red, with cream and ivory used for outlining, the medallion and the corner spandrels. Small accents of teal and deep bottle green appear inside the rosettes and in the border palmettes, and there are touches of soft gold in the ivory fans. The border red is noticeably warmer and lighter than the reds inside the field, so the frame separates rather than merges. Abrash is minimal and the pile has a light sheen when viewed with the nap, typical of good central Persian wool.

Arak, Sultanabad and the Weaving Quality

Arak, known as Sultanabad before the city was renamed, sits in central Persia and has been the commercial heart of room-size Persian weaving since the late 19th century. The surrounding villages supplied the trade with heavy, honest floor rugs, and the district gave its name to several families of weaving, among them Persian Mahal rugs and the finer Mahajiran work covered in our Persian Sarough rugs guide. This piece belongs to the better end of that tradition: the knotting is tight and regular, the back shows crisp clear rows with no slippage or crowding, and the curved vinework holds its line through the corners, which only happens when the weaver is following a proper workshop drawing rather than improvising. The wool was tightly spun and has worn evenly, so after decades the pile still stands up and the pattern is as legible on the back as it is on the face.