8'6" x 11'6" Chinese Tabriz Rug | Wool and Silk | Black and Ivory

A rectangular hand-knotted rug measuring 8'6" x 11'6", knotted in China with a pile of wool and silk. At a glance it reads as two things at once: a black field so thickly drawn with flowers that almost no ground shows through, and a wide pale border that lifts the whole rug away from it.

Design

The Tabriz drawing here is the medallion-and-corner type, worked at a small scale. A round medallion sits at the centre, its inner disc filled with paired palmettes and tiny rosettes, ringed by lobed burgundy cartouches and split-leaf arabesques, with slender pendants running out north and south to anchor the long axis. Around it the field carries a continuous vine of rosettes, cinquefoils and serrated leaves, symmetrical either side of the centre line. The four corner spandrels repeat the pale ground of the border so that the black field appears to float as a shaped panel. The main border is a broad ivory band of alternating palmettes and flowering sprays on a thin black vine, set between burgundy minor stripes and several hair-thin guard lines, and the rug finishes with a plain black outer band and ivory fringe at both ends.

Colour

The ground is a dense flat black with no visible abrash, which is what makes the flowerheads read so sharply. Against it the ivory and warm beige of the border and medallion do most of the work, shading toward buff where the silk catches the light. Burgundy appears in the medallion lobes, the guard stripes and scattered blossoms, a deep cool red rather than a bright one. Leaves and calyxes are a muted olive green, and the flowerheads carry salmon, dusty rose and the occasional pale grey-blue floret, which keeps the palette from settling into plain black and cream.

The making

Hand-knotted, with a pile of wool and silk, the silk placed in the flowerheads and medallion tracery where it picks up light against the matt wool of the black ground. The folded corner shows a firm, even handle and a closely packed back, and the ends finish in plain ivory warp fringe. The rug is new and in perfect condition.