7'9" x 11'6" Persian Tabriz Rug | Floral Medallion on Red | Signed Cartouche | Excellent Condition

This is a workshop-drawn Tabriz in the classic format: a deep navy lobed medallion floating at the center of a red field, four matching corner spandrels, and a wide ivory border carrying a vine of alternating palmettes. The weaver signed the piece in a small cartouche woven into the upper border, which on a Tabriz almost always means a named atelier rather than a village loom. At 7'9" x 11'6" it covers a full seating group or a dining table with chairs pulled back, and it sits comfortably among our large Persian rugs. The pile is wool at 3/8", knotted on a cotton foundation, and the condition is excellent with the drawing still crisp from border to border. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity recording origin, materials, size and knotting.

Design and Motifs

The center medallion is built in layers: an ivory 8 petal star at the core, ringed by small rosettes and cream cartouche shapes, then a dense navy ground packed with curling leaves and blossoms, finished with a scalloped outline and a slim pendant reaching toward each end of the field. Around it the red ground is never left empty. Split leaf arabesques swing out in long sickle curves, paired with vine scrolls, tiny 4 petal rosettes and single blossoms set at measured intervals so the field reads as a balanced all over arrangement rather than scattered filler. The 4 corner spandrels repeat the navy of the medallion and carry large caramel and gold palmettes with blue flowerheads, which gives the corners real weight and frames the open red. The border system runs three deep: a wide ivory main band with a meandering vine and alternating red, navy and gold palmettes, flanked by narrow guard stripes in red and navy with a reciprocal sawtooth edge. The signature cartouche breaks the top border on the left, outlined and set on a contrasting ground, exactly where a Tabriz master places his mark.

Color: Clear Red, Deep Navy, Soft Ivory

The field is a clear, slightly cool red with a faint horizontal abrash that moves a shade lighter and darker as the light crosses it, the signature of wool dyed in separate small lots. Against it the medallion and spandrels sit in a navy so dark it reads nearly black at a distance and only opens up into indigo and midnight blue when you stand over it. The main border is a warm ivory that has mellowed toward cream, and it does the important job of lifting the red away from the floor rather than letting it go heavy. Inside the drawing the secondary palette is where this one earns its character: caramel and old gold in the palmettes, a light sky blue in the smaller flowerheads, a muted olive and celadon green in the leaves, a dusty rose pink in the petals, plus chalk white outlines that keep every motif legible. The green of the signature cartouche is the one true accent note on the whole rug. If you are shopping red Persian rugs, this is the saturated, traditional red that warms a cool room without turning orange under lamplight.

Tabriz Origin and Weaving Quality

Tabriz sits in the northwest corner of Persia and has been the country's commercial weaving capital for centuries, the city where designers, master weavers and dyers worked side by side and where fineness is still measured in Raj, the number of knots counted across a gereh of about 2.75 inches of width. That workshop culture is visible here in the way the curved line is handled: a medallion that stays symmetrical across its full width, arabesques that sweep without breaking, and borders that turn the corner cleanly instead of being cut off. The back photograph shows an even, tight knot face on a cotton foundation with no slack rows, and the 3/8" wool pile has the firm, slightly glossy handle that good Azerbaijan fleece gives. A signed cartouche puts this piece in workshop rather than village territory, and the condition is excellent, with full pile and tidy selvedges. Browse more Persian Tabriz rugs to compare medallion drawing and knot density across the group.