How to recognize a Sarouk
The "American Sarouk" is unmistakable: a deep rose or salmon‑red field with detached floral sprays in blue, ivory, green and pink, a thick, lustrous, closely clipped wool pile, and asymmetric knots on a cotton foundation at 100 to 200 per square inch. Room sizes of 9×12 and 10×14 were made in enormous numbers and sold through New York department stores. Older Sarouks (pre‑1920, Ferahan Sarouk) are finer with medallion designs and softer color.
Because the original Sarouk reds were considered too bright for American taste, importers in the 1930s to 50s "washed and painted" them: the rug was stripped with chemicals and the field brushed with darker red dye. That paint, now sixty to ninety years old, still comes off in water. It is why Sarouks are treated as a special case at Farmingdale. They come to us from Garden City, Rockville Centre, Hewlett, Manhasset, Huntington and Sayville, usually with a family story attached.
- Origin
- Sarouk / Arak region, west Iran; American‑market production 1920–1955
- Knot
- Asymmetric; 100–200 kpsi
- Pile
- Thick, lustrous wool
- Foundation
- Cotton
- Dyes
- Rose reds; mid‑century painted fields bleed
- Our method
- Paint test → dye test → dusting → cold wash with stabilizer, short contact → clear rinse → centrifuge → fast flat dry
