9'8" x 13'4" Persian Mashad Rug | Ivory All-Over Floral | Signed Cartouche

This is the kind of piece that changes a room the moment it is unrolled: a 9'8" x 13'4" ivory ground covered edge to edge in flowering vinework, framed by a deep red border that pulls the whole floor together. It is hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation with a 3/8" pile that still stands crisp, and the weaver signed his work in a small cartouche set into the upper border, which on Persian Mashad rugs almost always means a named workshop rather than a village loom. At just under 10 by 13 feet it sits squarely in the most useful format we sell, so if you are comparing 10 x 13 Persian rugs for a living room or a long dining table, this one gives you a light field without giving up the formality of a classic red border. Condition is excellent, the pile is even across the field, and the rug ships with a certificate of authenticity documenting origin, materials and construction.

Design and Motifs

There is no central medallion here. The field is drawn as a true all-over floral composition, mirrored on both axes, so the pattern repeats cleanly no matter which end of the room you enter from. Large curled saz leaves sweep across the ivory ground in opposing pairs, each one outlined in a lighter tone so the curve reads from standing height, and between them sit palmettes, rosettes and small budding blossoms strung on thin brown vines. Look closely at the detail photograph and you can see how carefully the drawing is resolved: every leaf carries an interior fill of tiny serrated fronds, and the blossoms are shaded through three or four tones rather than blocked in flat. The border system is a wide main band of scrolling palmettes flanked by narrow guard stripes, with turtle-like devices marching around the perimeter and the 4 corners turned properly so the pattern does not break. The signature cartouche interrupts one guard stripe on a blue ground, woven in Persian script in red.

Ivory, Dark Red and Blue

The field is a warm white ivory, closer to unbleached cream than to chalk, and it is this light ground that makes the rug work in rooms where a red-field piece would feel heavy. Against it, the drawing runs through a surprisingly wide palette: deep wine and raspberry reds in the blossoms, two distinct blues from a soft powder tone to an inky navy, olive and sage greens in the leaf fills, plus small hits of saffron gold, apricot and rose that only reveal themselves up close. The main border is a dark red, deep and slightly plum-leaning rather than orange, and it is bracketed by guard stripes of navy and mid blue that give the edge its definition. The back photograph shows the same clarity in the knot heads, which is the honest test of dye quality. Under lamplight the wool takes on a low sheen and the ivory warms further, while in daylight the blues come forward and the field reads cooler and cleaner.

Mashad Weaving in Khorasan

Mashad sits in Khorasan, in the far northeast of Persia, and it has been a weaving center for as long as it has been a pilgrimage city. The workshops there built their reputation on large room-size and oversize pieces in soft, long-staple Khorasan wool, drawn with a curvilinear floral vocabulary that borrows from the Safavid court tradition but stays distinctly local in its color, particularly the dark reds and the generous use of ivory. A signed Mashad is a workshop Mashad: the cartouche is the master's guarantee that the cartoon, the dyeing and the weaving were supervised from the first row to the last. You can read that supervision in this rug, in the straight selvages, the even 3/8" pile height and the way the mirrored pattern lands correctly at all 4 corners of a piece that runs more than 13 feet long.