7' x 7' Chinese Tabriz Round Rug | Wool and Silk | Ruby Red and Black

A round rug measuring 7' x 7', hand-knotted in China with a pile of wool and silk. The field is a deep ruby red covered edge to edge with flowering vines in cream, salmon, gold and olive, and the circle is closed by a wide black border of palmettes between pale salmon guard stripes. The fringe is plaited into a knotted band rather than left loose, which keeps the outline of the 7' x 7' circle clean all the way round.

The design

The Tabriz drawing here is an allover floral rather than a medallion layout: thin pink-red vines arc across the field in a loose lattice, each junction holding a serrated palmette or a round rosette, with smaller four-petalled blossoms and tiny star flowers filling the gaps. Short lanceolate leaves and little tapering red flecks scatter through the ground between the stems. At the centre, in the photographs taken close in, the vines meet on a small cruciform flower of gold and rose outlined in black, the only point in the field where the pattern settles. The main border runs a black ground with large cusped palmettes alternating with upright flowering sprays, and on either side of it a narrow salmon-ivory stripe carries a meandering vine of small blossoms. A plain ruby band finishes the outer edge before the fringe.

The colour

The ground is a dark ruby red that reads close to garnet in the flat overhead shot and warms where the light rakes across the pile. Against it the flowers are cream, soft salmon pink and a dry straw gold, with foliage in muted olive and grey-green and the occasional pale blue petal. The black border is a true black rather than a very dark navy, and it does the work of separating the red field from the pale fringe; the salmon guard stripes sit between the two as a lighter step. The overall effect is dark and warm, with the cream flowerheads carrying most of the brightness.

The making

Hand-knotted in China, with wool and silk in the pile. The silk shows where the flowerheads and the border scrolls catch the light, glinting against the matte wool of the ground, and it is clearest in the close shots taken along the fold. The weave is fine enough to carry the serrated leaf tips and the thin vine lines without breaking them into steps, and the pile is clipped low so the drawing stays legible. The rug is new and the condition is listed as perfect.