10'6" x 17'7" Persian Qum Rug | Red Field Lobed Medallion | Oversize Wool Pile, Excellent Condition

At 10'6" x 17'7" this is a genuine room filler, long enough to run the length of a large living room or seat a 12 chair dining table with the chairs still on the pile. It was hand-knotted in the Qum district of central Persia on a cotton foundation, with a wool pile beaten down to roughly 340 to 360 knots per square inch, which is a serious count to hold across 211 inches of length. The drawing is workshop work rather than village work: a lobed navy medallion floating on a brick red field, light blue spandrels in all 4 corners, and a deep navy main border carrying ivory and gold blossoms. The pile stands full and even with no low areas, and the piece ships with a certificate of authenticity. Weavings this wide in one unbroken piece are the exception even among oversize Persian rugs.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a stepped, ink navy medallion with an 8 petal rosette at its core, framed by ivory cartouche forms and finished top and bottom with a small pendant finial. Around it the field is filled edge to edge with a curling vine system: broad acanthus leaves, open palmettes, half rosettes and tiny closed buds, all drawn in a curvilinear workshop hand that keeps every stem connected rather than letting motifs float. The field itself is cut as a large scalloped cartouche, its outline traced in ivory pearls, so the light blue ground reads as a surrounding frame with heavy gold vine scrolls in each of the 4 corners. From there the borders step outward in 5 bands: a fine ivory zigzag guard, a gold band with pink and light blue rosettes, a brown lattice stripe, then the wide navy main border of upright palmettes and lily sprays, closed by a last gold outer stripe. The symmetry is strict on both axes, and the corner resolutions are properly turned, not cut off.

The Color Story: Brick Red, Ink Navy and Light Blue

The field is a warm brick red, closer to tomato than to burgundy, and it carries a light sheen where the wool catches the light. Against it the medallion and main border read as ink navy, almost black at the edge of the selvedge, which is what gives the design its strong graphic frame. The relief color is a pale robin's egg light blue, used for the spandrel ground and for the thin vine tracery across the red field, and it keeps an otherwise dense pattern readable from standing height. On top of that sit saffron and old gold for the palmettes and guard bands, ivory for outlines and blossom hearts, soft powder pink for the small rosettes, and olive green with chocolate brown in the leaves and lattice stripes. That is a 7 color palette working in a tight range, which is why the rug looks rich rather than busy, and why it sits comfortably with warm wood, cream upholstery and brass.

Qum: The Weaving City and the Quality of the Weave

Qum, south of Tehran in central Persia, is a young weaving city by Persian standards, established as a rug center in the 20th century, and it built its name on fineness rather than on tradition. Workshops there compete directly with one another, and that rivalry is the reason Qum is known for the finest silk work in the country. Wool pile Qum pieces like this one draw on the same drawing office discipline, the same curvilinear cartoons and the same tight knotting, then put it on a floor you can actually live on. Detail shots show the knot count holding steady through the leaf tips and the pearl outlines, which is where a looser weave would blur, and the pile depth of about 10 mm means the design will still be crisp decades from now. For more on the workshops, the materials and how the grades differ, read our complete guide to Qum rugs.