Antique Borchalu Five Medallion Persian Runner Rug, Early 20th Century

A Borchalu Persian runner from the Hamadan villages of western Persia, hand-knotted in wool on cotton in the early 20th century, with five medallions on an open red field.

Five serrated diamond medallions in navy step down the length of a clear madder red, each holding small flowers, rosettes and paired figures in ivory, pink and light blue, joined by a fine navy line with hooked ends. The field is left open around them, which is the Borchalu habit and what gives these runners their calm, and the border sets rosettes on navy between red guards.

The wool is hand-spun and the knots are tied by hand on cotton warps in the Hamadan manner, which gives a runner that lies flat and takes a hallway’s traffic for decades. The red carries abrash across the field, the tonal drift within one colour that comes of small hand-dyed lots.

The pile is full and even across the whole rug, and the selvedges and fringes are the ones it was woven with.

At 376 by 102cm it is a hallway runner. View it in our Richmond gallery, or explore more Persian runners.