9'10" x 12'8" Persian Tabriz Rug | Red Star Medallion | Vintage Wool Pile

A vintage room size Tabriz in the classic town formula: a deep red field carrying a full floral network, an ivory and navy star medallion anchored dead center, and heavy ivory cornerpieces that cut into the field with stepped, drawn edges. At 9'10" x 12'8" it covers a full seating group with the pattern reading properly from every side, which is exactly what the 10x13 Persian rug proportion was drawn for. The pile is wool on a cotton foundation, still full and lustrous, with the fringes and selvedges intact. Every rug we sell leaves Freeport with a certificate of authenticity recording origin, materials, weave and measurements.

Design and Motifs

The medallion is built in layers: an 8 petal rosette at the very center, ringed by a red star with serrated points, set inside an ivory lobed frame and then a navy octofoil with hooked arms and small cypress and leaf fillers. Above and below it, matching pendants step out into the field and finish in small ivory palmettes. The field itself is a continuous lattice of curved vines, palmettes, rosettes and serrated leaves, dense enough that the red never sits empty, yet drawn with the open curve that separates Tabriz work from its village neighbors. The ivory spandrels repeat the same vocabulary in reverse, so each of the 4 corners reads as a quieter echo of the medallion. The main border runs a navy ground with alternating vase and palmette cartouches, flanked by ivory and red guard stripes patterned with small reciprocal hooks and running rosettes.

A Deep Red Field with Navy, Ivory and Sage

The dominant color is a true Persian red, cool rather than orange, deepening toward garnet where the pile leans away from the light and lifting to a clearer cherry tone in the raking floor shot. Against it, the main border is a dark indigo navy that frames the whole piece and pulls the eye inward. Ivory does the structural work, in the medallion frame, the cornerpieces and the narrow guard stripes, and it is a warm oyster ivory rather than a bright white. Inside the drawing sit small quantities of sage green, soft teal and pale sky blue in the leaves and cartouche fillers, plus touches of old gold, camel and a single-note apricot on the palmettes. That secondary palette is what keeps a red and navy rug from reading heavy: from standing height you see red, up close you see 8 or 9 colors working together.

Tabriz Weaving and Construction

Tabriz sits in northwest Persia and has been the country's most organized weaving city for centuries, with workshop masters drawing cartoons and weavers working to the Raj system, where the count of knots across a gereh of about 2.75 in fixes the fineness of the piece. This rug is workshop drawn rather than improvised: the medallion is centered, the cornerpieces are symmetrical, and the border turns cleanly at all 4 corners, which is the tell of a proper cartoon and an experienced loom crew. The reverse photograph shows a tight, even knot line with the pattern fully legible from the back, on a cotton warp and weft that gives the rug the weight and stability to lie flat under furniture. Tabriz wool takes dye deeply and wears slowly, and on a vintage piece like this the pile has already settled into the soft sheen that a new rug takes years to earn.