10'2" x 17'8" Persian Tabriz Rug | Ivory Floral Medallion | Wool with Silk, 1980s

A rug this long asks a lot of the weaver, because any drift in the drawing shows up over 17 feet of field. This one holds its line from fringe to fringe. Woven in the 1980s on a cotton foundation with wool and a touch of silk, it carries a single layered medallion on an open ivory ground, framed by a salmon-peach border that reads warm in daylight and deeper under lamps. The pile still stands full and the ends and edges are original, which is why it grades excellent and perfect. Pieces of this footprint sit in the same conversation as other oversize Persian rugs, and like every rug we import it ships with a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a round medallion built in rings: an 8 petal rosette at the core, then a band of soft blue arabesque, then a ring of 16 large blush palmettes each filled with red tulip forms outlined in near-black navy. Slim pendants extend north and south, and matching lobed cartouches float to the left and right. Across the rest of the field a continuous vine scroll carries lotus palmettes, serrated saz leaves, half-open rosettes and small buds, drawn on a curved line rather than a grid, so the eye keeps moving instead of locking onto a repeat. The 4 corners are filled with large light blue spandrels holding a curling leaf and blossom cluster. Three borders frame the whole thing: a wide salmon main band of palmettes and drooping blossom sprays, a rust guard band on each side with reciprocal vine and rosette figures, and a narrow ivory ribbon at the very outside.

A Warm Ivory Palette with Peach, Blue and Rust

The ground is a warm ivory that leans toward cream and light gold where the silk-touched wool catches light, and it takes up about 70 percent of the surface, which is what keeps a 17 foot rug from feeling heavy. Against it the drawing works in a muted, slightly faded-rose register: dusty blush, old rose, wine burgundy in the larger rosettes, and clay red in the smaller flower heads. The blues are gentle rather than electric, a powder to slate blue in the medallion field and the corner spandrels, with occasional deeper teal in the leaf work. Greens appear as sage and olive in the saz leaves, with a few soft yellow and gold blossoms scattered through the main border for lift. The salmon-peach border is the tonal bridge between the ivory field and the rust guard bands, and the near-black navy outlining every motif is what gives the whole palette its definition.

Tabriz Weaving in Northwest Persia

Tabriz sits in Azerbaijan province in northwest Persia and has been the country's most organized weaving city for centuries, working from full cartoons with master designers and measuring fineness in Raj, the number of knots across a 2.75 inch gereh. At roughly 60 Raj, about 400 knots per square inch, this piece sits in the range where the curved line stays true and small details like the tulip fillers inside each medallion petal actually resolve instead of turning blocky. The back shows an even, tightly packed knot field on a cotton warp and weft, and the pile has been clipped to a medium height that protects the drawing while keeping the wool soft underfoot. The 1980s date shows in the palette and the handle rather than in any wear, and if you want to understand the markers used to date an Oriental rug, this weave is a clean example to study.