9'8" x 13' Persian Lilihan Rug | Rose Red Field, Ivory Spandrels | Excellent Condition

This 9'8" x 13' room-size floor piece is a classic Persian Lilihan rug of the Sarough family, hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation with a 3/8" pile that still stands full and even across the whole field. The drawing is formal without being stiff: a 16 point star medallion floats at the center of a rose red ground, ivory spandrels open the 4 corners, and a deep indigo main border carries the pattern out to a red selvage and clean ivory fringe. At this size it reads as a true anchor rug, and buyers shopping 10x13 Persian rugs will find the proportions generous enough to hold a full seating group or a 10 seat table. Condition is excellent with no wear, and every rug we ship carries a certificate of authenticity confirming it is hand-knotted in Persia.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a layered star medallion: an ivory core filled with small rosettes and a 6 petal flower head, ringed by a serrated indigo band and then by a wider ivory outer ring of alternating blossoms. From the medallion the field breaks into large curving cartouches and leaf forms, each one packed with detached flower heads, tiny daisies and slender stems, the dense all over floral habit that distinguishes Lilihan drawing from the more open Sarough layouts. Small brown and gold pendant forms mark the inner corners, and a pair of upright vase and cypress forms sit at the top and bottom of the medallion axis. The ivory spandrels are drawn as flowering branches rather than solid panels, so the corners stay light against the saturated ground. The indigo main border runs a repeating sequence of palmettes, rosettes and hooked leaf brackets, framed on each side by narrow guard stripes of running vine and by a fine barber pole stripe at the outer edge, which is the detail that keeps a rug this large from looking heavy.

Rose Red, Ivory and Indigo Color Story

The field is a warm rose red that leans toward raspberry in daylight and settles into a deeper cherry tone under lamplight, and the flat scan of the rug shows it at its brightest. Against that ground the weavers set a cool ivory that appears three times, in the medallion core, in the corner spandrels and in the thin outer guard stripes, so the eye is carried in a diagonal across the rug. The border is a dark indigo navy, almost aubergine where the wool has taken the dye most deeply, and it holds the red in place the way a frame holds a painting. Secondary colors are used in small doses and carefully: sage and bottle green in the leaves, soft gold and apricot in the border rosettes and in the barber pole stripe, pale blue and dove grey in the flower heads, and a few touches of taupe and chocolate brown in the pendant medallions. The result is a red rug that is not one note, which matters in a living room with mixed woods, brass and creamy walls.

Lilihan Weaving and the Sarough Tradition

Lilihan is a weaving village in the Arak district of central Persia, grouped commercially with the Persian Sarough rugs woven in the same region and long prized in the American market for exactly this combination of a red ground, a floral field and a navy border. The back photograph shows the story clearly: a tight, regular knot across the width, straight and even rows up the length, and a cotton warp and weft that give the rug body without stiffness. Village looms in this district work with locally spun wool that takes red and indigo dyes unusually well and wears slowly, which is why Lilihan pieces of this size so often survive decades of family use and still show a full pile. The weave is honest handwork, not a workshop exercise in fineness, and the small irregularities in the corner resolutions and in the abrash of the field are the signature of a rug tied by hand on a village loom rather than printed or machine made.