8'9" x 10'6" Antique Persian Sarough Rug | Woven Poetry Border | Red Field | Allover Floral | 80 Years Old

This is an antique Persian Sarough of unusual character, woven roughly 80 years ago and distinguished by a border of woven Persian poetry. Cartouches of flowing nastaliq verse run all the way around the navy frame, a feature reserved for the most special commissions, set against a glowing raspberry-red field filled with a graceful allover spray of flowers. At 8'9 x 10'6 it is a fine room-size carpet, and the combination of poetry, color, and age makes it a genuine collector's piece rather than simply a decorative rug.

Design and Motifs

The field is an allover floral composition rather than a medallion design, a loose, airy bouquet of roses, palmettes, blossoming branches, and slender leafy stems that rise and spread across the open red ground, drawn with the painterly freedom for which Sarough weavers were known. Curling acanthus leaves and clusters of small flowers in blue, gold, green, and ivory are scattered throughout, giving the field a living, garden-like movement. The real signature of this rug is its border: a deep navy band carries a series of golden cartouches, each one filled with finely knotted Persian poetry in nastaliq script, alternating with floral panels and separated from the field by ivory guard stripes of trailing vines. Woven verse of this kind turns the border into something to be read as well as admired, and it is rarely seen outside of special-order pieces.

Colors and Placement

The palette is rich and warm: a raspberry to brick-red field, a deep indigo-navy border, and ivory and gold in the guard stripes and poetry cartouches, with the flowers picked out in sky blue, green, gold, rose, and cream. Eighty years have softened these natural dyes into a mellow, harmonious glow, and the subtle variations across the red ground give the surface the depth that only aged, hand-dyed wool achieves. The open red field keeps so detailed a design feeling light and elegant, and the gold inscription panels draw the eye around the entire border. At 8'9 x 10'6 this rug warms a living room, dining room, study, or library, and its inscriptions and age also make it a rewarding piece to display as woven art.

Origin and Construction

The Sarough district of west-central Persia produced some of the most prized village and town carpets of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, known for their durable structure and richly drawn floral fields. This piece is hand-knotted in pure wool on a cotton foundation at roughly 200 to 220 knots per square inch, a fine count for a Sarough that allowed the weaver to render both the flowing florals and the delicate poetry script with clarity, as the close detail and reverse photos show. Woven approximately 80 years ago, it remains in excellent condition for its age. To learn more about this weaving tradition, see our guide to Persian Sarough rugs, and browse our full collection of Sarough rugs.