9'6" x 13'3" Persian Tabriz Rug | Red Open Field Shah Soleiman Medallion | Woven Signature Cartouche

A weaver confident enough to leave most of the field empty is telling you something about the medallion. This 9'6" x 13'3" Persian Tabriz rug is built around a plain madder red ground, uninterrupted except for four floral sprays and a single dense center, and a small woven cartouche sits at the top of the field where the workshop signed its work. The pile is 3/8" wool on a cotton foundation, still full and even across the whole surface, and the back shown against the ruler reads as a tight, regular knot with clean, unbroken lines. It is a genuinely useful room size, close to the proportions buyers search for in 10x13 Persian rugs, and it arrives with a certificate of authenticity confirming origin, materials and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

The Shah Soleiman layout is a court drawing scaled down for a room. At the center sits a lobed, serrated medallion built in layers: an inner ivory panel holding a small indigo lozenge and a rosette, framed by a gold surround, then a broad green ring carrying 4 octagonal satellite cartouches and a scatter of small blossoms and curling leaf tips. Above and below it, slender pendant finials reach into the open ground. The field itself carries only 4 detached floral bouquets set at the corners of the empty space, each one a compact 8 petal rosette with feathered leaves, plus 2 smaller sprigs at the sides. What makes the rug unusual is the end treatment: instead of running the border straight across, the weaver filled the top and bottom of the field with a row of upright panel reserves, alternating ivory, olive, blue and brown, each holding its own miniature palmette or vase motif. The main navy border then answers with an 8 pointed star repeat separated by paired palmettes and vine, with narrow reciprocal guard stripes on both sides.

A Madder Red Field Against Indigo and Deep Green

The field is a true madder red, warm and slightly cherry toned under direct light, and because it is left open you see the wool itself rather than a pattern. The main border is a deep indigo navy that pulls the eye outward and makes the red look richer by contrast, while the inner guard band shifts to a lighter cornflower blue that lifts the whole frame. The medallion is the surprise: it reads as a dark forest green rather than the usual navy, and against the red it does the work of a jewel setting. Inside it, ivory, camel gold, aubergine and a soft rose pink appear in small quantities, and turquoise flickers through the satellite cartouches and the border rosettes. The panel reserves at each end bring in ecru ivory, olive, chestnut brown and a clear mid blue, so the ends of the rug carry noticeably more color variety than the center. The signature cartouche is woven in white on a bright sky blue ground, easy to find once you know where to look.

Tabriz Weaving and the Quality of This Piece

Tabriz sits in the northwest of Persia and has been the country's most organized weaving city for centuries, working to the Raj system, where knot count is measured across a gereh of roughly 2.75 in of width. Tabriz workshops are known for two things this rug shows plainly: disciplined drawing, where a curved medallion outline stays smooth over 4 feet of length, and a willingness to sign their output. A cartouche at the head of the field is a workshop mark, not decoration, and it is the kind of detail collectors look for first. The wool here is dense and springy with a low, even 3/8" clip that keeps the fine outlining legible, and the cotton foundation gives the piece the flat, obedient lay that makes a rug of this length sit properly under furniture. Condition is excellent and never used, with full pile edge to edge, straight sides and original fringe at both ends.