4'9" x 7'3" Persian Isfahan Rug | Blue Field Bird and Rose Medallion | Approx. 516-581 KPSI | Silk Foundation

A small rug carrying a very large amount of work. This 4'9" x 7'3" piece belongs with the finest Persian Isfahan rugs of the modern workshop era: a virgin wool pile lifted with silk, knotted onto a silk warp and weft at roughly 516 to 581 knots per square inch. That density is what allows the weaver to draw a bird's wing, a rose petal edge and a hairline vine tendril without the outline breaking up. The pile is full, the ends and sides are intact, and the rug has been professionally cleaned and is in excellent condition. It ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming origin, materials and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

The center of the field holds an 8 pointed star medallion with a deep burgundy ground, and inside it two birds face one another across a spray of blossom, framed by a pale gold band of curling arabesque. Around that medallion sit 8 smaller 8 point stars, each one a separate little painting of roses and leaves on ivory or navy. Beyond the cluster the field opens into a garden: flowering branches heavy with red blossom, slender trees with mottled bark, and birds shown perched, hovering and in full flight with their wings spread. Each end closes with an ivory pendant medallion centered on a single pink rose, and a smaller cresting palmette below it. The main border runs ivory with alternating bouquets of pink and pale blue cabbage roses on a scrolling vine, held between navy guard bands of blue palmette scroll and a fine red outer stripe. The 4 corners are marked by sky blue and olive gold star cartouches, each with its own rose spray, a detail that lifts this above the standard commercial drawing.

A Clear Blue Field Set Against Ivory

The field is a clear medium blue, cornflower rather than navy, with a turquoise cast where the silk catches the light and a softer, almost hazy tone in the open ground between motifs. Against it the ivory border reads warm and creamy, closer to old parchment than white, and the navy guard bands give the whole rug its hard outline. The flowers carry the rest of the palette: dusty rose and salmon pink in the large roses, an unusual pale ice blue in the roses beside them, deep burgundy in the small blossom sprays and in the central star, olive gold in the corner cartouches and in the arabesque framing, and several greens from a bright leaf green to a dark bottle tone in the foliage. Highlights of pale peach, cream and light sky blue pick out the birds and the vine tips. Because the field stays quiet and the drawing sits above it, the rug works next to blues, warm ivories and dark wood without competing.

Isfahan Weaving and What the Knot Count Buys

Isfahan sits in central Persia and has been a court weaving center since the Safavid workshops of the 16th century. Its reputation rests entirely on drawing: the curved line, the flowing vine, the ability to render a living bird rather than a symbol of one. None of that is possible at a village knot count, which is why serious Isfahan work is knotted this finely and why a silk foundation is used. Silk warps are thinner and stronger than cotton, so the weaver can pack more knots across the width, and the rug hangs and folds with the suppleness that collectors of Persian silk rugs look for. At this scale the piece falls into the most usable format in the house, and it stands out among 5x7 Persian rugs precisely because the same weaving standard is usually reserved for far larger and far more expensive room sizes.