9'7" x 13'4" Persian Tabriz Rug | Red Field with Navy Medallion and Ivory Floral Borders | Excellent Condition

This is a full room size Tabriz in the classic town formula: a deep red field, a stepped navy and ivory medallion dead center, pale blue quarter spandrels in the 4 corners, and a wide ivory main border carrying dark 8 petal rosettes. The pile is 3/8" wool with the firm, slightly crisp handle that Tabriz weavers get from a tight cotton foundation, and the back photograph shows an even, disciplined knot line across both the field and the border. Condition is excellent, with full pile, straight sides and clean original ends, which is not a given on a rug of this footprint. It fits naturally alongside our other 10x13 Persian rugs and ships with a certificate of authenticity documenting origin, materials and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

The drawing is built around a single stepped medallion with a coral rosette at its heart, ringed by a navy field of small blossoms and leaf sprays, then framed by an ivory outline that steps out into short points. Above and below the medallion the field carries tall vase and flowering branch motifs, cypress-like leaf fans and curling cloud band tendrils, all set against the red ground and drawn small enough to stay legible rather than turning into blocks of color. The 4 spandrels repeat the same vocabulary in reverse, pale ground with red and ivory palmettes. Three borders do the framing work: a narrow inner guard of running vine, a wide ivory main border with alternating dark rosettes and small floral cartouches, and an outer guard that mirrors the inner. The overall balance is formal and symmetrical in both directions, which is exactly what you want on a rug this large.

A Ruby Red Field Against Ivory and Blue

The field is a true ruby red, warm rather than orange, deep enough to anchor a big room without going black in low light, and it is the reason this piece sits with our red and burgundy Persian rugs. Against it the ivory border reads almost oyster and pale sand where the wool catches the light, and the spandrels are a chalky light blue that cools the whole composition down. The medallion supplies the darkest note, an inky navy, and its core is a clear coral salmon, the single warmest color on the rug. Scattered through the field are small accents of soft green, old gold, sky blue, rose pink and pure ivory in the flower heads and leaf tips, so the red never reads flat. Dark navy outlines separate every motif from the ground, which is what keeps a crowded floral field this readable from across the room.

Tabriz Weaving in Northwest Persia

Tabriz sits in the northwest of Persia and has been the commercial and design capital of Persian weaving for centuries, the town where the medallion and spandrel layout seen here was refined and then copied everywhere else. Tabriz weavers work on a taut cotton warp with a metal hook, count fineness in Raj, and are known for holding a curved line and a symmetrical medallion accurately over long distances, which is the hard part of a 13'4" length. You can see that discipline on this rug: the two halves of the field mirror each other, the border rosettes keep their spacing all the way around the corners, and the knot rows on the reverse run straight with no drift. The wool is good, springy Azerbaijani fleece, which is why a rug of this age still shows a full 3/8" pile and the color still has depth.