8'9" x 11'10" Pakistani Tabriz Rug | Wool and Silk | Black and Ivory

A 8'9" x 11'10" rug knotted in Pakistan in wool with silk, worked in a Tabriz drawing. Seen from above it is a black field carrying a small ivory medallion and a dense allover scroll of flowers and boteh, held inside a wide ivory border whose inner edge is cut into deep scallops rather than run straight. The silk sits in the highlights, so the pale flowers and the medallion catch light a step brighter than the wool around them.

Design

The Tabriz pattern here is the floral allover type rather than a single dominant medallion. A rosette medallion no wider than a dinner plate sits at the centre, with matching pendant cartouches above and below it on the long axis, and the rest of the field is filled with thin vines turning through palmettes, sunflower-like rosettes, small five-petal blossoms and long curled leaves. Large boteh, drawn with hooked tips and filled with tiny florets, are spaced around the field in pairs and read clearly against the dark ground. The ivory border runs a continuous meandering vine with birds perched in it, visible in the corner photograph, and the scalloped line where border meets field gives this rectangular rug the look of a cartouche laid on a dark panel.

Colour

The ground is a flat black, dark enough that the drawing on it appears to float. Against it the palette is warm and pale: ivory and sand in the border and the larger blossoms, rose and dusty salmon through the vine flowers, and burgundy picking out flower centres and the stems that outline the scrollwork. Green is used sparingly, a muted sage and a darker pine in the leaves, which keeps the field from tipping entirely pink. The border ground is a shade or two warmer than the ivory used inside the field, so the two do not flatten into each other.

Making

This is a hand-knotted rug in wool and silk, the wool carrying the body of the pile and the silk used in the lighter flowers and medallion where the sheen shows. The back, seen at the fringe end beside the ruler, shows a fine even knotting that holds the thin vine lines and the small filler blossoms without breaking them up. The pile is clipped low, the selvedges are dark, and the warps run out into plain undyed cotton fringe at both ends. Condition is new.