5' x 8' Silk Oriental Rug | Tabriz Floral Medallion Design | Brand New, Never Used

This is a 5' x 8' hand-knotted silk rug, woven in China in the classic Tabriz medallion manner and never placed on a floor. Pick it up and the weight tells you immediately that the pile is real silk rather than mercerized cotton: light in the hand, cool to the touch, and alive with a sheen that shifts from deep brick to a warm glow as you walk around it. The drawing is tight and symmetrical, the selvedges are straight, the ends are finished with soft ivory fringe, and the pile is clipped low so that every outline stays crisp. As a hand-knotted Oriental rug it ships with our certificate of authenticity, which records the size, the silk pile, the hand-knotted construction and the origin for your records and for insurance.

Design and Motifs

The layout follows the Tabriz workshop formula: a lobed, scalloped central field holding a single large star medallion, with quartered corner spandrels closing the composition. The medallion itself is built from a 12 point ivory star ringed by pointed petals, curled leaves and small heart shaped blossoms, with a tiny red and gold rosette at the exact center. Around it the red field is filled edge to edge with scrolling vines, sunflower style rosettes, open palmettes and fine serrated leaves, all of it mirrored top to bottom and side to side. The corners carry an ivory ground with a small shield cartouche and flowering branches, and the field is framed by a wide ivory main border of linked arabesque palmettes between several narrow guard stripes of blossoms and rosettes. Nothing is crowded or approximate; each curve in the vinework closes properly, which is the real test of this design.

Color: Brick Red, Ivory, Gold and Green

The field is a warm brick red that reads slightly orange under daylight and deepens toward true red in lamplight, a shift you can see by comparing the overhead photos with the angled floor shots. Against it the drawing is carried in soft ivory and cream, antique gold and a muted olive green, with small touches of pale blue, dusty rose and a near black outline that gives every flower its edge. The medallion reverses the balance: ivory and buttery gold dominate there, with cranberry red accents inside the petals and olive leaf forms between them. The border runs ivory with gold and tan arabesques and pinpoint reds and blues, so the pale frame lifts the red center rather than competing with it. Because the pile is silk, each color carries two tones depending on the direction of the nap, and the ivory areas in particular flash almost white from one end and settle to cream from the other.

Origin and Weaving Quality

This rug was made in China, where workshops have spent decades reproducing the great Persian city patterns in pure silk, working to the fineness set by the best Persian silk rugs and borrowing the Tabriz medallion as their reference drawing. The back, shown with a ruler for scale, is the proof of the work: the knot rows are small, even and tightly packed, which is why the curved vines and the points of the star medallion resolve cleanly instead of turning into steps. A knot count that high across 5' x 8' means many months on the loom for a weaver who could not afford a single mistake in the graph. The low, dense silk pile also means it will hold its definition in use, and at this size it suits a sitting room seating group, a bedroom, or a study where the sheen gets good light.