8'1" x 11'3" Persian Tabriz Rug | Red Field, Sky Blue Medallion | Signed Cartouche

A signed workshop piece in the classic Tabriz format, this rug runs 8'1" x 11'3" and sits squarely in the most useful of all room sizes, which is why 8x11 Persian rugs get grabbed first. The pile is 3/8" wool on a cotton foundation, still full and even with no thin spots, and the weaver left a small woven cartouche in the ivory border, the mark of a named workshop rather than an anonymous village loom. Condition is excellent throughout, the selvedges and fringes are sound, and the rug ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming it as a hand-knotted rug made in Persia.

Design and Motifs

The drawing is pure Tabriz curvilinear work: a large lobed central medallion with a stepped ivory core, framed by scrolling brown and ivory arabesques, and finished top and bottom with tall floral pendants. Four corner spandrels in ivory repeat the same vocabulary in quarter form, filled with palmettes, serrated leaves and open roses. Between medallion and spandrels the open red ground is not left empty; it carries small detached flowering sprays, rosettes and slender vines that keep the field lively at close range. The main border is a wide navy band of alternating palmettes and blossoms, flanked by narrow guard stripes of running vine, with a fine outer stripe holding the whole composition square.

A Red Field Lit by Sky Blue and Ivory

The field reads as a true tomato red, warm rather than blackish, and it carries the whole rug. Set against it, the medallion is drawn in a bright sky blue that shifts toward periwinkle where the light catches the pile, with an ivory and salmon center and touches of soft rose pink, pale yellow and camel in the inner rosettes. The main border goes the other direction into deep navy, which throws the ivory spandrels and guard stripes forward and gives the rug its strong frame. Mint and sage green run through the guard stripes and the corner leaves, cooling the red, and small accents of burgundy, sky blue and cream are scattered through the field flowers. It is a lively, high-contrast palette that sits well with warm woods and reads clearly from across a room.

Tabriz: The Workshop City of Northwest Persia

Tabriz sits in the northwest of Persia and has been the country's drafting table for centuries, the city where cartoon designers and master weavers work together rather than weaving from memory. Fineness there is measured in Raj, knots counted across a gereh of the width, and the discipline of that system is what keeps a curved medallion outline smooth instead of stepped. You can see it here in the unbroken sweep of the medallion lobes and in the tight, legible detail of the border palmettes. The back photograph shows a regular, well-packed knot line with no slack or uneven rows, and a signed cartouche on a piece like this means an identifiable atelier stood behind the work. Buyers who follow Persian Tabriz rugs know that combination of accurate drawing and dense wool pile is exactly what makes them last through generations of daily use.