Intricately Patterned Antique Persian Sultanabad Rug, Country of Origin: Persia, Circa Date: 1920
The ground is a pale ivory sand, and the drawing set on it runs large for the width — scarlet palmettes, serrated leaves, indigo rosettes and small olive accents, all strung on thin red stems. The blue is used sparingly, as outline and punctuation rather than mass.
The forms are floral but the drawing is not: every petal and leaf is built in stepped outline, which gives the field its geometric edge. The main border reverses the palette — a brick red ground carrying ivory and olive cartouches, closed by an indigo guard stripe of small ivory rosettes.
At 5 ft by 11 ft 6 in this is a long, narrow carpet: right for a hallway, the foot of a bed, or a run of floor along one wall rather than a piece to set furniture on. A different run of floor can have the pattern remade as a custom rug.
