9'8" x 13' Persian Sarouk Rug | Sunset Orange Field with Indigo Medallion | Semi-Antique Wool

This is a full room-size piece in the classic central Persian idiom: a wide sunset orange field, a single deep indigo medallion drawn with lobed petals, and ivory spandrels that frame all 4 corners. The pile is 3/8" wool with the dry, slightly glossy handle that older Persian Sarouk rugs develop after years of settling, and the weave reads crisp and tight on the reverse, as the back photograph shows. At 9'8" x 13" of floor coverage it sits squarely in the 10x13 Persian rugs range, which is the size most buyers are after for a main living area or a 10 seat dining table. Every rug we ship leaves Freeport with a certificate of authenticity recording origin, materials and knotting.

Design and Motifs

The drawing is curvilinear from end to end. At the center sits a lobed medallion filled with small red and blue rosettes on indigo ground, closing on an ivory cartouche that holds an 8 petal rosette with a red and olive heart. Slim pendant finials run off the medallion top and bottom into the open field, where loose sprays of forget-me-not flowers, tulip buds and green leaf stems are scattered in a deliberately unhurried rhythm, never filling the ground completely. The 4 corner spandrels are ivory, each carrying a large curled palmette, boteh leaves and a brown and sky blue panel, so the field reads as a shaped oval rather than a plain rectangle. The main border is indigo with upright flowering shrubs and turtle palmettes alternating with arching vines, and it is held between narrow pale green guard stripes dotted with small rosettes. Small weaver variations in the floral sprays confirm the piece was drawn by hand rather than copied square by square.

A Sunset Orange Field Against Indigo Purple

The field color is the first thing anyone notices: a warm sunset orange red, clear and even across the full 13' length, with the faint vertical abrash that hand-dyed wool gives when the yarn is spun in small lots. Against it the medallion and the border run a deep indigo that carries a distinct purple cast under warm light, which is why the spec sheet calls it indigo purple rather than navy. Between those 2 poles the palette is surprisingly wide. Ivory does the structural work in the spandrels, the medallion center and the fine outlines. Pale green appears in both guard stripes and in the leaf work. Sky blue, teal, olive, soft pink, chestnut brown and a muted rose fill the flower heads, and a rust orange recurs in the border shrubs to tie the frame back to the field. The result is a rug that anchors a warm room without going dark, and that sits comfortably with brown leather, walnut, brass and cream plaster.

Sarouk Weaving in Central Persia

Sarouk is a village in the Arak district of central Persia, and its name has stood for heavy, long-wearing room-size weaving for well over a century. The looms there are set with a stout cotton warp and weft, and the wool is packed down hard, which is why a Sarouk of this age still shows full, even pile with no thin areas. Weavers in the district work from a cartoon for the medallion and corners but draw the scattered field flowers largely by eye, a method that keeps the curved line fluid instead of mechanical. Knot count in these village and small workshop pieces is moderate by Isfahan or Nain standards, and that is the point: the density goes into the beat-down and the wool rather than into miniature detail, giving a rug built to live under furniture and foot traffic for generations. Pieces at this width, close to 10 feet, were woven to order for large rooms and are considerably scarcer than the 9x12 format.