8'2" x 11'2" Persian Tabriz Rug | Open Red Field | Navy Floral Medallion | Excellent Condition

This is a hand-knotted Persian Tabriz measuring 8'2" x 11'2", woven in wool on a cotton foundation with the pile clipped to roughly 3/8" so the drawing stays crisp. What sells this rug in person is the restraint: a single navy medallion sits in the middle of a clear crimson field, and the weaver let the red breathe instead of filling every inch. The back, shown in the close-up, is tight and even, with straight rows and no bowing at the sides, which is the mark of a well-tensioned loom. Condition is excellent, with full even pile corner to corner and the original ivory fringe intact. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming origin, materials and hand-knotted construction, and this size falls squarely into our selection of 8x11 Persian rugs.

Design and Motifs

The layout is the classic Tabriz medallion formula handled with an unusually open hand. A lobed navy medallion fills the center, built outward from a light blue palmette rosette at the core and ringed by scrolling arabesque and small flowerheads in rose, ivory and gold. Above and below it hang two small navy pendants on slender stems, and from each end of the medallion sprays of carnations, tulips and delicate vine tendrils reach out into the plain field. The 4 corners carry large quarter spandrels drawn as broad feathered leaves, densely filled with trellis flowers and finished with an ivory cartouche holding a single rose. The main border is a navy ground with a continuous palmette and rosette vine, flanked by ivory guard stripes running a vine of small blossoms, and the whole frame is kept narrow enough that the field stays the hero. It is a formal drawing without being busy, which is exactly why an open field layout like this works under furniture.

The Color Palette: Crimson Field, Navy Frame

The field is a true crimson red, slightly cool rather than orange, and because so much of it is left open you see the natural abrash and the wool's shine move across the surface as you walk around it. Against that sits a deep indigo navy in the medallion, the spandrel outlines and the main border, which gives the rug its weight and keeps it from reading as a bright rug. The secondary palette is where it gets interesting: a soft salmon pink edges the spandrels, a clear light blue fills the leaf forms and the medallion center, and the small floral work scatters ivory, antique gold, old rose, sage and bottle green through both field and border. Crisp ivory is used sparingly, in the guard stripes and the corner cartouches, and it does the work of separating navy from red so the two never muddy. If you are shopping the red and burgundy Persian rugs group, this is the warm classic end of that range.

Tabriz: Weaving Quality in Northwest Persia

Tabriz sits in the northwest of Persia and has been the country's most commercially serious weaving city for centuries, the place where workshop standards, cartoon-based design and the Raj counting system were refined. Tabriz weavers measure fineness in Raj, the number of knots across a gereh of about 2.75 inches, and the city's reputation rests on the ability to hold a curved line and a flowing vine cleanly at that density. You can see that discipline here in the symmetry of the medallion halves and in the way the border vine turns each corner without crowding. The reverse photo shows a firm, regular knot with a low clipped pile, the combination that lets a Tabriz keep its drawing sharp for decades under traffic. Woven in wool on cotton, this one belongs with the more traditional Persian Tabriz rugs rather than the pastel modern output, and at 8'2" x 11'2" it is a true room-size piece in excellent order.