8'6" x 11'6" Wool & Silk Oriental Rug | Black Tabriz Design with Cream Medallion | Brand New, Never Used

Laid out flat, this 8'6" x 11'6" hand-knotted piece reads as a deep black ground broken open by one luminous cream medallion, and the quality of the drawing shows the moment you crouch down to it. The vine work runs in thin unbroken curves, the flower heads are outlined rather than blocked in, and the silk highlights catch the light and lift the pale blossoms clear of the dark field as you walk around it. The pile is wool and silk on a cotton foundation, the weave is tight and even from selvedge to selvedge, and the rug is brand new with no wear anywhere. It is an Oriental rug worked in the classic Tabriz format, and it ships with a certificate of authenticity recording size, material, weave and origin.

Design and Motifs

The center is a cream oval medallion built around an 8 petal rosette, ringed by a band of paired blossoms and framed by deep burgundy lobes that fan outward like petals of a second, larger flower. Slender pendants run off the head and foot of the medallion into the field, and 4 corner spandrels repeat the same ivory and burgundy vocabulary so the layout resolves cleanly at every corner. Around all of that the field is filled edge to edge with curling vine, palmettes, rosettes and small leafy sprays, mirrored across both axes, with 4 small red cartouche panels set just inside the field line. The border system runs 5 bands: a broad ivory main border of alternating red palmettes and rose sprays linked by a fine black scrolling vine, flanked by red guard stripes carrying stylized blossoms and green leaf tips, and finished with a plain black outer band that squares the whole design off against the fringe.

Black Field, Cream Medallion and the Colors in Between

The field is a true black, dense and matte where the wool sits and faintly glossy where silk is used, which is what gives the flowers their glow in the close-up photographs. Against it the palette is warm rather than stark: cream and soft beige carry the medallion and the main border, deep burgundy red anchors the medallion lobes, the guard stripes and scattered blossoms through the field, and soft pink runs through the smaller flower heads and rose sprays. Look closer and the weaver has salted in sage green leaves, rust and copper petal tips, pale blue-grey buds and small ivory highlights, so the black never flattens out. The overall effect from standing height is black and cream with red punctuation; from arm's length it is a much broader range of tones, which is exactly how a well drawn floral design is supposed to behave.

Origin and Weaving Quality

This rug was made in China, in one of the workshops that weave the Tabriz medallion format to a high standard using hand-spun wool blended with silk on a cotton warp and weft. The Tabriz drawing is the most demanding of the classic floral layouts because everything depends on the curved line, and a curve only stays smooth at a high knot count; on this piece the vines hold their shape through every turn and the medallion outline is genuinely round rather than stepped, which tells you the knot count is well above commercial grade. The pile is clipped low and level so the detail stays legible, the silk sits in the highlights rather than being scattered at random, and the selvedges and fringe are finished by hand. At close to 9x12 Oriental rugs in footprint, it covers a full seating group or seats a 10 chair table with the chairs pulled back and still on the wool.