5'1" x 7'8" Vintage Persian Isfahan Rug | Signed Master Ebrahimpour | Snowflake Medallion with Paisley Garlands | Kork Wool with Silk Highlights on Silk Foundation | 30 Years Old | 720 to 740 KPSI

A genuinely exceptional piece, a 5'1" x 7'8" vintage Persian Isfahan rug woven approximately 30 years ago by Master Ebrahimpour, a discreet but highly respected name among Isfahan's late 20th century master weavers. The rug is hand-knotted in fine kork wool with generous silk highlights on a pure silk foundation at roughly 720 to 740 knots per square inch, a density firmly in the master-grade tier of Isfahan production. A radiant snowflake-form medallion anchors the ivory field, framed by curved paisley garlands and a deep burgundy main border. The signature panel woven into the lower border reads "Iran - Isfahan - Ebrahimpour" in Persian script, confirming both provenance and authorship from one of the city's exclusive master ateliers. The rug is in great vintage condition with full pile across the field. Read more in our complete guide to Isfahan rugs.

Design and Motifs

The composition is a classical Isfahan medallion-and-corner layout in its most refined expression, organized around a radiant snowflake-form central medallion built from concentric rings of stylized blossoms, palmettes, and curling vines that bloom outward like frost crystals on glass. The medallion sits on a soft ivory ground and is framed by an eight-pointed silhouette of curling sky-blue arabesques. Curved paisley garlands sweep around the medallion in graceful arcs, each garland strung with tiny rosettes and forget-me-nots like beads on a thread. Pendant cartouches at the head and foot of the field extend the central axis, drawn as small lobed medallions filled with their own miniature floral bouquets and crowned by tiny finials. Four large paisley boteh sit in the upper and lower quadrants of the field in mirrored pairs, drawn in the elegant elongated Isfahan boteh style with cross-hatched interiors and curling tips. Smaller boteh and floral sprays fill the spaces between, woven so finely that the eye keeps discovering new detail at every distance. The wide deep burgundy main border carries a stately procession of large paisley boteh interlaced with floral rosettes and curling palmettes, framed by ivory and slate-blue guard borders carrying delicate vine-and-rosette repeats. The four corners of the field are turned with quarter-medallions whose floral arabesques mirror the geometry of the central medallion, closing the composition with the strict symmetry that defines first-tier Isfahan drawing.

Colors and Placement

The palette is built around a luminous antique ivory field, accented with sky blue, slate blue, and midnight navy, and framed by a deep burgundy main border that gives the composition its quiet weight. Secondary tones of beige, taupe, sage green, ivory pink, rust, and soft brown thread through the paisleys and floral garlands, adding warmth without ever crowding the cool central palette. The kork wool ground has the soft, slightly powdered quality that only the finest Isfahan workshops achieve, and the silk highlights, woven into the lighter motifs of the medallion, garlands, and boteh interiors, catch ambient light and shift subtly as you move around the rug, lending it a quiet luminosity that photographs only partially capture. The whole color story reads like an Isfahan winter morning, a controlled and sophisticated harmony of pale neutrals and frosted blues anchored by a single deep burgundy frame. This is a rug that brightens a room without dominating it, and at 5'1" x 7'8" it sits beautifully in front of a sofa in a formal living room, beside or under a queen bed in a primary bedroom, in a study or library, in a home office, or as a centerpiece in a smaller dining area. It pairs effortlessly with traditional, transitional, and even quietly modern interiors, and the cool ivory ground keeps the room feeling open and luminous.

Persian Isfahan Rugs and Construction

Isfahan was the imperial capital of Safavid Persia in the 16th and 17th centuries, the city where Shah Abbas the Great established the royal court workshops that produced the finest carpets ever woven. After centuries of decline, Isfahan production was revived in the early 20th century and reached a second creative peak in the second half of the century, when a generation of master weavers and ateliers, including Seirafian, Haghighi, Davari, Entashari, and Ebrahimpour, raised the city's output back to its historic standard. Master Ebrahimpour belongs to the discreet tier of Isfahan masters whose work circulates more quietly than the largest names but whose technical standards sit firmly in the same class. This rug is hand-knotted on a pure silk foundation at roughly 720 to 740 knots per square inch, which works out to over 4 million individual hand-tied knots across the full pile surface. The pile is fine kork wool, the rare ultra-soft throat fleece of the lamb, with generous silk highlighting woven into the lighter motifs of the medallion, garlands, and boteh to add the subtle luster that defines master-tier Isfahan production. The Persian senneh asymmetric knot is used throughout, allowing the workshop's miniature drawing of paisleys, rosettes, and palmettes at a level of detail comparable to Persian manuscript painting. Construction of an Isfahan piece at this density represents roughly 14 to 18 months of full-time work for a skilled weaver, before the additional months of design, dyeing, finishing, and washing that surround the loom work. A signed Ebrahimpour at this density and in this condition represents a serious collector-grade Persian rug from one of Isfahan's exclusive master ateliers. Read more in our complete guide to Isfahan rugs.