5'9" x 9' Persian Tabriz Rug | Ivory Field with Sage Green Medallion | 1980s, Never Used, Approx. 400 KPSI

This is a fine city weave from the 1980s that spent its life rolled and stored rather than walked on, and the pile still stands full and even from selvage to selvage. At roughly 400 knots per square inch the drawing is tight enough to hold hairline outlines around every flower head, and the wool has the quiet sheen good Tabriz fleece keeps when it has never been exposed to sun or traffic. The scale suits rooms where a 9'0" length would crowd the walls, and it sits comfortably within the popular range of 6x9 Persian rugs. Every rug we ship travels with a certificate of authenticity recording origin, materials, knot count and measurements.

Design and Motifs

The layout is the classic Tabriz workshop formula, drawn with a lot more care than most: a lobed central medallion with a small oval core and long tapering pendants at each end, answered by 4 corner spandrels that repeat the medallion palette and its curling leaf work. What lifts this piece above a standard medallion rug is the field itself. Look closely at the ivory ground and you will find birds, at least a dozen of them, perched on the vines with their tails and wing feathers picked out in 2 or 3 tones apiece, tucked between palmettes, split arabesque leaves, rosettes and small bud clusters. The vine scroll moves on a true curve rather than a stepped line, which is only possible at this knot count. The main border carries alternating palmettes and cloud bands on a gold-olive ground, framed by ivory and dark guard stripes with a fine reciprocal minor border at the outer edge.

A Soft Ivory, Sage and Rust Palette

The field is a warm ivory, closer to unbleached cream than white, and it is the reason the rug reads light in a room even though the drawing is dense. Against it the medallion and spandrels are a muted sage green with a grey cast, edged in a soft caramel outline that keeps the shape legible from across the floor. The flowers inside supply the warmth: dusty rose, salmon, coral and a deeper brick rust in the palmette centers, with crimson reserved for small accents so it never takes over. Blue appears in 2 registers, a pale powder blue in the smaller blossoms and a deep teal to near navy in the leaf tips and outlines. Add the olive and gold of the main border, a scatter of brown and charcoal in the vine work, and touches of clean ivory in the border flower heads, and you have a palette that works with wood tones, warm neutrals and antique brass without fighting anything.

Tabriz Weaving and the Quality of This Piece

Tabriz sits in northwest Persia and has been the country's most organized weaving city for centuries, working on vertical looms with a hook and measuring fineness in Raj, the number of knots counted across a gereh of about 2.75 in. Around 400 knots per square inch is collector territory for a wool pile Tabriz, and the back tells the story: small, square, tightly packed knots on a cotton warp, with the design just as crisp from behind as it is on the face. The pile is clipped low and level, the selvages are tight, and the ivory cotton fringe is original and full. A rug woven to this standard in the 1980s and then never put into service is a rare thing to find; it is effectively a 40 year old piece with a new rug's pile depth.