7' x 10' Persian Tabriz Rug | Wool | Red and Navy

A rectangular rug of 7' x 10', knotted by hand in Persia with a 3/8" wool pile. At a glance it reads as a strong red field with a pale ivory medallion at the centre and a dark, almost black border running the full way round, with a band of soft salmon pink set between the two. It sits in the 6x9 to 8x10 range, a size that covers a seating group or a six-chair dining table.

Design

The Tabriz drawing here is curvilinear and densely filled. A pointed ivory medallion holds a trellis of small green leaves around a blue rosette, and finishes top and bottom in dark navy pendants that trail hooked vine ends into the field. The red ground around it is covered in thin stems carrying rosettes, buds and serrated leaves, worked small enough that the pattern stays busy rather than open. Four corner spandrels in navy and ivory cut across a salmon inner frame, and the main border, on a near-black ground, alternates palmettes with upright tulip and lily heads between them. Two narrow guard stripes of linked rosettes, one on a pale green ground, separate border from field and finish the outer edge.

Colour

The field is a cool, slightly blue madder red that holds its depth across the whole surface, and the border ground is a navy dark enough to read as black at a distance. Between them the salmon pink frame does most of the work of lightening the rug, picked up again in the pink buds scattered over the red. The medallion and the spandrel reserves are undyed ivory, and the smaller flowers bring in bottle green, mid blue, pale sage and a clear rose.

Making

Hand-knotted in Persia with a 3/8" wool pile, cut low enough that the small floral drawing stays legible. The reverse, shown with a ruler across it, has even rows and clean colour change at the outlines, and the ends finish in plain ivory warp fringe. Condition is given as excellent. More hand-knotted work from the same part of the world is in the full collection.