6' x 8'10" Pakistani Tabriz Rug | Wool and Silk | Black and Burgundy

A hand-knotted rug from Pakistan, 6' x 8'10", worked in wool with silk through the flowerheads and leaf tips. The field is black, covered edge to edge with pale florals and curling leaves, and it sits inside a wide deep red border. At a glance the pile reads as cream and rose scattered over dark ground, with the silk catching light where the wool does not.

Design

This is a Tabriz design, drawn as an all-over floral rather than around a single medallion. Fine vines run the length of the field, carrying rosettes, palmettes, split leaves and large curved boteh, each one outlined so it lifts clear of the black ground. The drawing is mirrored across the long axis, with a small rosette at the centre and anchoring palmettes at the top and bottom of the field. A narrow celadon guard band frames the field, then the main border runs a repeating line of flowerheads and serrated leaves, closed by a second pale guard stripe and a black outer edge. Ivory cotton fringe finishes both ends, visible in the corner and reverse photographs.

Colour

The ground is a true black, flat and unbroken, which is what gives the flowers their edge. Over it the weaver has used ivory, a soft dusty rose, a clay pink and small amounts of olive and sage green in the leaves. The border is a deep madder red, close to burgundy, cooled by the pale green guard stripes on either side of it. Against the black, the pinks look warmer than they are; against the red border they settle back towards cream.

Making

Hand-knotted in Pakistan, with a pile of wool and silk, the silk reserved for highlights in the floral drawing rather than spread across the whole field. The back, shown with a ruler laid across it, is even and finely knotted, with the design legible through to the foundation. The table records it as new and in perfect condition. It is a rectangular piece that falls in the 6x9 range, one of many wool and silk weaves among the new rugs in our full collection.