9'11" x 13'9" Persian Tabriz Rug | Ivory All-Over Floral Field | Signed Weaver's Cartouche

This is a room-filling 9'11" x 13'9" hand-knotted Persian Tabriz rug with a wool pile on a cotton foundation, and it is signed: a small ivory cartouche is woven into the top border, which is the weaver's own mark and something you only see on workshop pieces. The pile stands at 3/8", even from end to end, with no wear areas and clean, straight sides. Laid out flat it reads as a light rug, an ivory ground carrying a dense all-over floral drawing, framed by a deep red main border that pulls the whole thing together. As a true 10 x 14 Persian rug it will sit under a full seating group or a 10 seat dining table without crowding the walls. Every rug we ship leaves with a certificate of authenticity documenting origin, materials and construction.

Design and Motifs

There is no central medallion here. The field runs as a true all-over design, mirrored down the long axis and repeated in registers, so the pattern reads the same from either end of the room. Slender footed vases send up sprays of tulips and carnations, broad palmettes open in profile, and long serrated saz leaves curl back on themselves between them. Look closely at the field detail and you find small 8 petal rosettes scattered on thin stems, tiny cypress-like buds, and pairs of curling vines that cross and lock around each blossom. The main border carries a procession of 8 pointed ivory star rosettes alternating with upright palmettes on the red ground, and it is contained by narrow teal guard stripes running a continuous vine-and-flowerhead meander. The 4 corners resolve cleanly, with the border drawing turning the corner properly instead of being cut off, which is the sign of a cartoon drawn by someone who knew what they were doing.

The Ivory and Red Color Story

The ground is a warm ivory, closer to bone and old parchment than to a bright white, and it softens further under lamplight. Against it the palette is unusually varied for a 2 color spec: rose pink and salmon in the rosettes and carnations, deep navy in the palmette hearts and in the outlines, soft sea-green and olive in the leaves, a few pale blue-grey vine scrolls, and touches of aubergine and ochre. The main border is a deep, slightly brick-toned red, more madder than crimson, and the teal guard stripes give a cool break between the red and the ivory so the two never fight. The overall effect is light and airy from a standing distance and surprisingly colorful up close. Practically, an ivory-ground rug of this scale lifts a dark floor and lets dark wood furniture read as furniture rather than as mass.

Tabriz: The Town and the Weave

Tabriz sits in the northwest of Persia and has been the commercial and design capital of Persian weaving for centuries, the place where workshop masters kept the drawn cartoon tradition alive and where the Raj system of counting fineness is still used. Tabriz weavers work with a hook-ended knife on a cotton warp, which lets them set knots quickly and keep the curved lines of a floral drawing honest. You can see that discipline in this piece: the vines flow, the palmettes are symmetrical, and the color changes fall where they should rather than a knot or two late. The back photo shows tight, regular rows with the pattern legible from behind, which is what you want to see in a hand-knotted rug of this size. The signed cartouche places it in a named workshop rather than an anonymous village loom, and the excellent condition of the pile suggests it spent its life lightly used.