9'7" x 12'10" Persian Tabriz Rug | Red Floral Field, Light Blue Medallion | Signed Cartouche

This 9'7" x 12'10" Persian Tabriz is a workshop piece in the fullest sense: a deep red field drawn edge to edge with flowering vine, a pale blue lobed medallion at the center, and a woven cartouche tucked into the medallion border where the weaver or the atelier put their name. The pile is fine wool on a cotton foundation, clipped low so the drawing stays crisp, and the back shows an even, tightly packed knot line with no slack or wander. Condition is excellent and the rug has never been used, with full pile, straight sides and clean ivory fringe at both ends. It ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming it as a hand-knotted Persian Tabriz. At this footprint it sits comfortably in the family of 10x13 Persian rugs, large enough to carry a full seating group with all four legs on the wool.

Design and Motifs

The layout is the classic Tabriz medallion and corner format, but the field is worked as a true all-over floral composition rather than an open ground. Thin scrolling vines run in every direction, carrying rosettes, tulips, carnations, small palmettes and leafy sprays, with occasional birds hidden among the stems. At the center sits a light blue pointed-oval medallion filled with a second, smaller pattern of salmon arabesques and a tiny 8 petal rosette core, finished with slender pendants north and south. Matching quarter medallions anchor the 4 corners of the field, and a pair of ivory cartouche panels at the top and bottom of the field is drawn with flowering shrubs, a quiet garden reference that Tabriz designers use to break the red. The main border is an ivory band of curving vine and blossom, framed inside and out by reciprocal guard stripes and a fine meander, with red palmette corner pieces closing the frame cleanly.

Color Palette

The ground is a true tomato red with a slight brick depth to it, warm rather than blue-toned, and it reads as the dominant color from across a room. Against it the drawing is almost entirely light: ivory and cream vine work, sky and powder blue blossoms, soft salmon pink petals, sage and olive green leaves, small touches of mustard gold and dark navy used as outline and shadow. The medallion is the coolest note in the rug, a pale ice blue that lifts away from the red instead of competing with it, and the ivory borders repeat that lightness around the perimeter so the whole piece feels framed rather than heavy. The palette gives this one unusual flexibility for a red rug, since the cream and blue keep it from going dark; buyers cross-shopping other red and burgundy Persian rugs will notice how much light this one carries.

Tabriz Origin and Weaving Quality

Tabriz sits in northwest Persia and has been the country's most disciplined commercial weaving city for centuries, the place where the cartoon, the loom and the Raj count were standardized into something close to an industry. Tabriz weavers count fineness in Raj, the number of knots across a gereh of about 2.75 in, and the city's reputation rests on being able to hold a curved line at high counts, which is exactly what this rug demonstrates: the vine stems stay round, the medallion outline never steps, and the small blossoms keep their shape at scale. The wool is fine and lustrous, the knotting even from end to end, and the cotton warp and weft give the rug the flat, stable body that makes a Tabriz lie perfectly true on the floor. A signed cartouche on a piece of this size points to an organized workshop rather than a village loom, which is consistent with the precision of the drawing throughout.