Vintage Qum Persian Area Rug

This good condition, finely woven Persian city-style piece is basically a harmony of dark / royal blue and cream/ straw / gold. The designer loved sawtooth motif edges. The squarish, faintly eight - lobed medallion displays a barbed edge, the U-shaped leafy pendants are jagged, the extended corners are similarly rough, and all the lancet leaves and palmettes on the swirling thin vinery are sharply serrated. The “teeth” allow a transition between the dark field and the motives, large and small, within it. Eliminate the serrated edges and the whole rug becomes more, perhaps, too relaxed. The points lend an air of activity, motion and drama. The small lollipop flowers with double leaves in the medallion, corners and convex field end pieces are only an accent in the general edginess. The border system, by contrast, is totally relaxed and basically tone-on-tone with a main stripe showing one-way palmettes. The inner minor border with a sandy-straw ground features flower-filled vases at the corners breaking into the field corners. The plain royal blue outermost band writes a definitive finis to the whole. Kermans from SE Persia in the immediate pre- and post WWII periods often show the contrast of dark blue and gold tones, and this may be one of them. The foundation is all-cotton, with a fairly fine weave of asymmetric (Persian) knots on a clipped medium-lowish pile of good quality wool. The condition is good. .