8'2" x 10'1" Persian Tabriz Rug | Ivory Medallion with Birds | Wool & Silk, 400 KPSI, Never Used

This is a workshop-grade Tabriz woven in fine wool with silk highlights at approximately 400 knots per square inch, the 60 Raj grade a Tabriz loom only attempts when the drawing demands it. The rug has never been on a floor: the pile stands full and even across the ivory ground, the colors have had no light on them, and the cotton warps at both ends are still full length and uncut. A small woven cartouche sits inside the green guard border at one end, the weaver's own mark rather than a later addition. At 8'2" x 10'1" it lands squarely in the most useful room size in the house, and buyers cross-shopping 8 x 10 Persian rugs will find very few at this knot count. It ships with a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

A small lobed medallion in rust and deep brown sits at the center, built around an 8 petal rosette, and throws long pointed pendants north and south into the field. Around it the ivory ground carries a dense, perfectly mirrored lattice of curling vines, split palmettes, lotus heads and tiny blossom sprays, with birds worked in among the branches on all 4 quarters, a few perched and a few in flight with tails drawn out along the stems. The corner spandrels are filled with arabesque cloudbands and cartouches. The main border runs vases, palmettes and flowering stems on camel gold, framed by narrow flowering guard stripes, and the whole layout resolves so cleanly that you can fold the rug in half in your head and watch the drawing line up.

A Palette Built on Ivory, Sage Green and Camel Gold

The field is a warm cream ivory, closer to unbleached wool than to white, and the silk in the pile catches light so the ground shifts slightly as you walk past it. The 4 corner spandrels are a muted sage to olive green that reads soft rather than bright, with lilac and mauve arabesques drawn over it and pale blue outlines separating the leaves. Chocolate brown does the structural work: it outlines the medallion, the spandrels and every border stripe, and it keeps a busy field readable. Rust and soft salmon pick out the flower heads, small notes of denim blue and ice blue sit in the palmette centers, and the main border is a deep camel gold that pulls the warmth of the field out to the edges.

Tabriz Weaving and What 60 Raj Means

Tabriz sits in the far northwest of Persia and has been the country's most technically ambitious weaving city for centuries. Its workshops measure fineness in Raj, the number of knots across one gereh of about 2.75 in of width: 40 Raj is ordinary commercial work, 50 is fine, and 60 Raj, roughly 400 knots per square inch, is where collector-grade Tabriz weaving begins. That density is what allows the curved vine, the bird feathers and the thin outline colors in this rug to be drawn accurately rather than approximated. The foundation is cotton, the pile is fine wool carrying silk in the highlights, and the handle is firm and tightly packed with a low, crisp clip typical of a good Tabriz loom.