9'8" x 12'11" Oriental Rug | Kerman Floral Medallion on Navy Blue | Hand-Knotted Wool | Excellent Condition

This is a large, quietly dramatic room-size piece: a deep navy field carrying an ivory and tan star medallion, framed by three borders of scrolling flowers and paisley. It is a genuine hand-knotted Oriental rug with a cotton foundation and a wool pile, woven knot by knot on the loom rather than printed or machine made, and the partially visible back label in the last photograph reads "authentic" and "handmade". At 9'8" x 12'11" it covers a standard dining or living room with furniture sitting comfortably on the pile, and the softly faded, lived-in surface tone means it works with antique furniture and with plain modern upholstery equally well. Every rug we ship carries a certificate of authenticity confirming it is hand-knotted, along with its measurements, materials and origin.

Design and Motifs

The drawing follows the classic Kerman formula: one commanding central medallion, open field around it, and a dense floral frame. The medallion is built as a stepped star rosette, its core an 8 petal flower ringed by rows of small leaf forms, drop shapes and tiny comma buds, then edged with a radiating crown of daisies and serrated leaves that break outward into the blue. North and south of the medallion the same vocabulary repeats as pendant sprays, and the 4 corners are filled with large bouquets of carnations and cypress-like leaf fans that lean inward, so the eye is pulled back to the center from every direction. The border system is a triple arrangement: a wide main band of alternating palmettes and curled paisley boteh on navy, an inner and outer guard stripe of ivory vine scroll, and a final ribbon of running cloud-band curls at the very edge. The floral spandrels and the curved, flowing vine work are drawn in curvilinear line throughout, with no angular village shorthand, which is what separates a workshop medallion design like this one from a tribal geometric rug.

Color Palette

The field is a true saturated navy blue, deep enough to read almost indigo in the corner photograph and lifting toward a mid denim blue where the light strikes across the pile. Against it, everything drawn is in the warm ivory to brown family: bone white petals, oatmeal and sand stems, and a dustier caramel tan in the palmettes and in the heart of the medallion. The medallion center adds the one cool note, a pale eau de nil blue washed through the lobes and small rosettes, picked up again as faint powder blue dots scattered through the main border and in the leaf tips of the corner bouquets. The outermost ribbon border and the two narrow guard stripes are a soft biscuit cream, which gives the whole rug a light frame and keeps the navy from feeling heavy. There is no red, no gold and no black in the palette, so the scheme stays restrained: blue and brown with ivory, the sort of coloring that sits under walnut, oak and brass without competing, and that photographs beautifully in rooms with cream or grey walls.

Origin and Weaving Quality

This rug was made in Pakistan, where hand-knotting workshops have specialized for generations in the great classical city designs, the Kerman medallion among them, worked from cartoons drawn in the same curvilinear tradition. Pakistani weaving is judged by the same measures as anywhere else: the clarity of the curve, the evenness of the rows and the quality of the wool, and the close-up of the back in the final photograph shows tidy, consistent knotting on a cotton warp with no slack or wandering lines. The pile is good durable wool, dense enough to hold the fine stems of the border and resilient enough for a room-size piece that will take furniture and traffic. Hand-knotted rugs from this part of the world represent some of the most capable traditional weaving still being produced, and a piece of this scale is an honest, serviceable alternative to a far more expensive city workshop original. If you are shopping by footprint rather than by origin, browse our other large room-size rugs and the wider Oriental rugs collection alongside this one.