8' x 11'3" Persian Tabriz Rug | Vintage 1960s All-Over Floral | Lavender Purple, Low Pile

Purple is the rarest colour to find in an old Persian rug, and this 1960s piece carries it across the whole field. Woven in the Tabriz tradition in wool on a cotton foundation, the 8' x 11'3" format fills a standard room from wall to wall without crowding it, which is why pieces in the 8x11 Persian rugs group move quickly. Six decades of use have taken the pile down low and softened every dye into a chalky pastel register that no new rug can imitate. It ships with our certificate of authenticity confirming origin, materials and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

There is no central medallion here. Instead the weaver used a repeating all-over design, with rows of 8 petal rosettes set in small lozenges, broad serrated leaves facing one another in pairs, upright vase and blossom groups, and hooked vine brackets that lock the whole field into a grid. The drawing is half floral and half geometric, a village reading of a city pattern, and the slight shifts from one repeat to the next prove it was drawn by hand rather than copied square by square. The wide ivory main border carries alternating star medallions and pink rosettes, framed by narrow guard stripes of teal curling leaves and reciprocal brown outlines. Corner resolutions are deliberate, with the border pattern turning cleanly at all 4 corners.

The Lavender Purple Field and Its Palette

The field is a true lavender violet with a cool blue undertone, deeper and more saturated in the close-up of the pile than it appears in the flat overhead shot, where the light flattens it toward lilac. Against that ground the motifs read in dusty salmon pink, a clear turquoise that jumps forward wherever it is used, soft cornflower blue, pale gold, chocolate brown for the outlines and lozenge centres, and an abundance of undyed ivory wool that keeps the whole surface light. The border is cream to pale wheat, giving the purple field a bright edge rather than a dark one. Abrash, the natural banding that comes from hand-dyed wool, runs gently through the ground. Collectors looking for soft purple and lilac Persian rugs will know how uncommon this colouring is.

Tabriz Weaving and 1960s Origin

Tabriz, in northwest Persia, has been the commercial and artistic centre of Persian weaving for centuries, and its workshops measure fineness by the Raj system, counting knots across the width rather than by eye. This piece sits in the sturdy decorative range of that tradition rather than the 60 or 70 Raj collector grade: a symmetrical knot on a cotton warp, tight enough to hold the small rosettes and the thin turquoise outlines cleanly, loose enough to be woven as a room-size floor rug for daily use. The wool, the dye palette and the construction all point to the 1960s, which matches the handle and the even low pile. If you want to understand how weavers and dealers read age from these clues, see our guide on how to date an Oriental rug.