4'8" x 6'10" Persian Qum Kork Wool Rug | Ivory Floral Medallion | Lilac Gray Border

This 4'8" x 6'10" Persian Qum is woven entirely in kork wool, the fine first-shearing fleece from the neck and shoulders of the lamb, and it has the hand to prove it: the pile is dense, short and as soft as a good cashmere sweater. The design is the classic Qum floral medallion, a navy lobed medallion floating on a wide open ivory field scattered with flower bouquets, framed by an unusual lilac gray border. It is knotted at 340 to 360 knots per square inch on a cotton foundation, it has never been used, and the white cotton fringes at both ends are full and clean. A certificate of authenticity from Rugs.net accompanies the rug.

Design and Motifs

The medallion is a scalloped navy lozenge with a red and olive outline, its center an olive green cartouche holding a white 6-petal blossom flanked by a pair of pink carnations. Around that center the navy ground is sprinkled with small white daisies, blue buds and 2 tall gold fan-shaped palmettes pointing up and down, and a pointed pendant with a white blossom closes each end. Instead of covering the field, the weaver left the ivory open and placed separate flower bouquets across it: a large upright bouquet at the top and bottom of the field, sprays of carnations and roses in each corner, fan-shaped navy palmettes on the horizontal axis, and smaller sprigs of blue and burgundy blossoms filling the spaces between. Each bouquet is drawn with its own leaves, tendrils and stems, so the field reads like a botanical plate rather than a repeating pattern. The border follows the same idea on a lilac gray ground, alternating gold pinecone-shaped clusters with white and red daisies and small blue flowers on curling stems, and it is framed on both sides by a mustard gold guard border with a running vine of white and pink rosettes and thin teal and brown sawtooth stripes. A plain navy outer edge finishes the rug.

Colors of This Ivory Qum Rug

The field is a warm ivory that reads as cream in daylight and takes on a faint gold cast when the light rakes across the pile, and it is the largest area of color in the rug, which is what keeps the design feeling airy despite the amount of drawing. The border is the surprise: a soft lilac gray, somewhere between dove gray and dusty mauve, that is rarely seen on Persian rugs and gives the piece a cooler, more contemporary temperature than the usual red or navy border would. Against those two grounds the medallion is a deep midnight navy, and the same navy returns in the fan palmettes, the small flowers and the outer edge. The flowers themselves run through olive and moss green, a mustard gold, burgundy and a brighter tomato red, cornflower and sky blue, sage green in the leaves, soft pink in the carnation centers, and a warm brown in the stems and the border guards. On the back the colors sit in a lighter key with no bleeding, and the tight, even knot rows are visible to the eye.

Qum Weaving and Kork Wool

Qum in central Persia is a young weaving center by Persian standards, active only since the 1930s, but it built its name on fineness: the town's workshops compete with each other on knot count and on materials, and the best Qum rugs are pure silk or kork wool, never ordinary wool. A kork Qum like this one gives you most of the softness and luster of a silk rug with the durability of wool, and at 340 to 360 knots per square inch the drawing is fine enough for the small daisies inside the medallion to read as individual flowers. Kork wool pile at this density also wears exceptionally slowly, which is why unused examples like this one are still found decades after they were woven. Among 5x7 Persian rugs it is a size that works in a bedroom, an entry or a study, and the ivory and lilac palette makes it one of the easier Persian rugs to place in a light, modern interior.