Rug No. has found its new home.
Every rug we sell is one of a kind, so that piece is gone. Here are others in the same spirit, or tell Rug Finder what you are looking for.
Najafabad Rugs
Najafabad is a town just west of Isfahan in central Persia. Its workshops wove in the Isfahan manner but larger and more robustly built, which made them carpets for living rooms rather than showpieces.
Najafabad: Isfahan drawing at room scale
Najafabad sits just west of Isfahan in central Persia. Its workshops learned from the Isfahan tradition, with its curved vinework and formal medallions, but wove at a larger scale and on a heavier build. The result is a carpet with city drawing and village durability, made to cover a floor rather than to hang on a wall.
That combination is exactly why Najafabad carpets traveled. They gave European and American buyers the look of a fine Persian carpet in a size and a price that a family house could absorb.
Most of what we have from Najafabad is oversized, and the rest are extra large. If you are covering a big floor, start here. Each one was knotted by hand between the 1940s and the 1980s.
The Najafabad style
- Drawing: a formal central medallion with curved floral vines, corner brackets, and a wide multi-stripe border.
- Color: deep red grounds most often, with a few beige, cream and charcoal pieces; ivory, rose and soft gold turn up in the detail.
- Construction: low wool pile on cotton, medium-fine knotting, substantial weight.
- Sizes: mostly oversized, with a few extra large pieces. Look here first when a floor needs real coverage.
Room-filling carpets
A Najafabad is a whole-room carpet. Under a dining table it gives you enough ground that chairs stay on the rug when pulled out; in a large living room it will run wall to wall under the furniture rather than floating in the middle.
The formality of the drawing also means it holds a big room together. Rooms with high ceilings and plain walls tend to need a carpet with some structure, and this is that carpet.
Not quite an Isfahan
It would be easy, and wrong, to sell these as Isfahan carpets. Najafabad is a distinct town with its own workshops and its own build. The drawing shares Isfahan’s vocabulary but the knotting is generally less fine and the carpet is heavier, which is a fair trade for a rug that has to survive a family.
Before you buy a Najafabad
How large do these get?
Most of this collection is oversized, big enough for a full living room or a long dining table. Check the exact measurements on each listing, since sizes vary piece by piece.
Is a Najafabad hard-wearing?
Yes. The build is heavier than a true Isfahan and they were woven for domestic floors, not for display.
Why do the designs look familiar?
Because the Isfahan vocabulary of medallion, vine and palmette became the standard picture of a Persian carpet in the West. Najafabad is one of the towns that carried it there.
Making the choice
Measure the room first, then choose ground color. Each carpet is a single vintage piece, washed by specialists we have trusted for years before it was listed.
Isfahan drawing at room size, from the town that wove it: the Najafabad guide.