5'6" x 8'6" Persian Tabriz Rug | Wool and Silk | Midnight Blue

A hand-knotted Persian rug measuring Width: 5'6" x Length: 8'6", worked in wool and silk on a rectangular format. At a glance it reads as a very dark rug: a midnight blue field carrying a dense floral net, with a burgundy medallion at the centre and burgundy spandrels pulling the four corners in. The silk sits in the flower heads and the finer scrollwork, where it catches light against the matte wool ground.

Design

The Tabriz drawing here is the classic medallion and corner arrangement, but the field around it is not left quiet. Vine scrolls run from end to end carrying eight-pointed rosettes, palmettes, small berry clusters and long serrated leaves, all of it symmetrical about both axes. The medallion is layered: a square green centre inside a lobed burgundy cartouche, with pendants above and below and curling cloud bands at its shoulders. The main border is midnight blue and alternates gold-ground cartouches holding a single flower spray with dark floral bunches between them, framed inside and out by narrow guard stripes of pale green and red vine.

Colour

The field is a true midnight blue, close to black in the corner photographs and reading deep indigo where the pile is brushed the other way. Against it the corners and medallion are a cool burgundy, more claret than brick. The third colour is green, a soft sage that appears in the medallion square, the guard stripes and the leaves, and it is what keeps the blue and red from meeting head on. Gold and warm ivory carry the border cartouches and the larger flower heads, with a little dusty rose in the smaller blossoms.

Making

The rug is hand-knotted in Persia, in a mix of wool and silk, and the back shown in the photographs is close and even, with the pattern legible knot for knot. The pile is short, which is what allows the fine outlining on the leaves and the small border flowers to stay crisp. The ends finish in plain ivory cotton fringe. The table records this rug as new and in perfect condition, and it sits among the hand-knotted rugs that have not yet been walked on.