7'11" x 7'11" Chinese Tabriz Round Rug | Wool and Silk | Red

A round rug measuring 7'11" x 7'11", knotted in China with a pile of wool and silk. At a glance it reads as a deep red disc ringed by a near-black band: a dense floral field in pom red, a small ivory medallion at the centre, and a wide dark border carrying cream and green palmettes.

Design

The field is worked in a Tabriz manner, an all-over floral lattice rather than a single dominant centrepiece. Ivory and gold rosettes sit on the red ground at regular intervals, each one ringed with petals and set among serrated green leaves and thin vine stems. The centre is marked by a small round medallion in cream with a green-edged rim and a red and ivory flowerhead inside it, barely larger than the rosettes around it. Two narrow guard stripes of pale cream, each carrying a running vine with small red crosses and green leaves, separate the field from the main border. That border is laid on a near-black ground and holds large cream and pale gold palmettes linked by curling leafwork, with red and green picked out in the smaller blossoms. A plain red band finishes the outer edge before the fringe.

Colour

The ground is a pom red that leans toward brick where the light runs across the pile and darkens almost to oxblood in the troughs between knot rows. Against it the ivory and soft gold of the rosettes carry most of the drawing, warmed slightly by the silk, while the leaves are a muted sage and bottle green and a few blossoms take a dull orange. The border reverses the scheme: cream and gold forms on a ground so dark it reads black at a distance and navy-black up close, which gives the rug a firm outline and keeps the busy field from spreading.

Making

Hand-knotted, with a wool and silk pile, the silk used sparingly in the rosettes and leaf highlights where it catches light against the matte wool. The back shows even rows and a tight weave, and the ends finish in knotted ivory fringe. The rug is new and in perfect condition, with full pile throughout. It is one of a number of Chinese-woven pieces in Persian designs among our hand-knotted rugs, where the drawing follows Tabriz convention and the weaving was done in China.