9'8" x 13' Persian Sarouk Rug | Soltanabad All Over Floral Design | Circa 1940s

This is an antique room size piece from the 1940s, hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation, and it belongs to the classic group of Persian Sarouk rugs woven in the villages around Arak. The deep navy field carries a Soltanabad drawing worked all the way to the edges, framed by a wide coral main border, and the pile still stands full and even after roughly 80 years, with clear fringes and tight original selvages. At 9'8" x 13' it sits squarely in the most useful of the traditional proportions, and buyers comparing 10x13 Persian rugs will find few antiques of this age in this condition. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The field is a true all over floral design, built from opposed pairs of large palmettes, curling serrated leaves, flowering sprays and small 8 petal rosettes that repeat in mirrored columns down the length. A single small gold lozenge sits at the exact center, more a punctuation mark than a medallion, with paired scrolling leaves opening away from it to the left and right. Between the larger blossoms the weaver dropped in lattice diamonds, tiny buds and strings of dots, so the ground never reads empty even across a field this wide. The wide coral main border repeats detached floral sprays and bent stems in the Sarouk manner, separated by narrow blue guard stripes of connected rosettes, and finished with an ivory outer band carrying a meandering vine. The 4 corners are resolved cleanly, with the border drawing turning rather than being cut, which is the mark of a weaver working from a properly drafted cartoon.

A Navy Field Against Coral and Green

The ground is a saturated indigo navy that goes almost black in low light and opens up to a clear deep blue under a lamp. Against it the palette is warm and unusually varied: coral and brick red rosettes, apricot and old gold blossoms, sage and olive green leaves, pale ivory outlines and several tones of sky blue in the smaller flowerheads. The wide main border is a soft coral that leans terracotta, a shade that only comes from naturally dyed wool mellowing over decades, and the blue guard stripes read a lighter cornflower next to it. Gentle horizontal variation across the navy, visible in the detail photographs, is abrash, the natural shift between dye lots that happens in hand-dyed wool, and it is one of the reasons an antique field has depth a machine-made ground never gets. The overall effect is formal but not heavy, with enough coral and green to warm a room finished in cream, walnut or brass.

Sarouk Weaving and the Soltanabad Tradition

Sarouk is a village northeast of Arak in west central Persia, and Soltanabad is the older name for Arak itself, the commercial hub that organized and marketed the weaving of the whole district. Rugs from this group are known for heavy, springy, high-lanolin wool and a firm double-wefted weave that gives them real weight and a long working life on the floor. The back of this piece, shown in the photographs, is tight and regular with clearly defined knot rows, and the pile is still thick enough to sink a hand into. Pieces like this were woven in quantity for the American market through the first half of the 20th century, which is exactly why they hold up: they were built to be used. If you want to understand what puts this one in the 1940s, our guide on how to date an antique Oriental rug walks through the wear, dye and construction tells that dealers read first.