11' x 19' Persian Tabriz Rug | Cream Field All Over Floral Medallion | 1980s Oversize

This is a true palace piece: 11' x 19' of hand-knotted wool on a cotton foundation, woven in Tabriz in the 1980s and kept in excellent condition. The cream field carries an all over floral system that never repeats carelessly, gathered around a single round medallion with a scalloped, drop shaped extension at each end. Pieces at this width are made on purpose-built looms for one room and one room only, which is why so few of them survive with the pile still even from edge to edge. It arrives with a certificate of authenticity, and like every oversize rug we import it ships free to all 50 states rather than carrying a freight surcharge.

Design and Motifs

The drawing is classic curvilinear Tabriz work. At the center sits a layered round medallion built from an 8 petal rosette inside a sunburst of gold and olive lobes, ringed by a dense wreath of leaf and palmette forms. North and south of it the field opens into two tall shield shaped panels outlined by a thin vine, each closed at the tip by a small pendant. Around that architecture runs a continuous all over floral lattice of split palmettes, serrated saz leaves, rosettes and fine scrolling vinery, with a rust cartouche anchoring each of the 4 corners. The border system is layered: a wide main band of large palmettes and curling leaves flanked by narrow guard stripes of small reciprocal blossoms, so the eye is carried around the perimeter instead of stopping at the edge.

A Cream Field Read in Olive, Rust and Peach

Cream is the ground color and it stays luminous across the whole 19' length, which is the hardest thing to achieve on a rug this size. Against it the weavers worked a muted, almost antique palette: olive and sage green in the leafwork, soft rust and terracotta in the corner cartouches and medallion ring, warm brown in the shading, and beige to peach in the wide main border. Small strikes of deep red, sky blue and navy sit inside the flower heads, and every motif is drawn with a fine black outline that keeps the pattern crisp rather than muddy. The overall effect is warm and low contrast, so the rug reads as a soft ivory floor from a standing height and only reveals its color range up close.

Tabriz Weaving and Oversize Quality

Tabriz, in northwest Persia, is the workshop city that made the curved line its specialty, and the weavers there work to the Raj system, counting knots per gereh across the width. That discipline is what allows a floral vine to stay round and continuous over 11 feet of width instead of breaking into steps. The back of this rug shows a tight, even wool knot on a cotton warp with straight, disciplined rows, and the side finishes and cotton fringe are original and intact. Buyers looking at oversize Persian rugs in this range are usually filling a great room or a formal salon, and a workshop Tabriz of this vintage is the safest way to do it: heavy enough to lie flat without a pad fight, finely enough drawn to hold up to close inspection, and built from wool that has already proven itself over 40 years.