9'8" x 13'2" Persian Tabriz Rug | Navy Blue Herati Fish Pattern | Ivory Medallion

This is a full room size Persian Tabriz, hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation and finished with a 3/8" pile that still stands even and full from selvage to selvage. The field is deep navy, packed corner to corner with the Herati fish pattern, and it is anchored by a single ivory and gold medallion that reads as a lamp of light in the middle of all that blue. At 9'8" x 13'2" it sits squarely in the 10x13 Persian rug class, big enough to carry a sofa group or a 10 seat dining table with all chairs on the wool. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming origin, materials and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

The field is a classic Herati, also called mahi or fish pattern: a diamond lattice with a rosette at each intersection and 4 curved lanceolate leaves turned outward around it, the leaves being the fish that give the drawing its name. Here the lattice repeats in tight, disciplined rows across the whole navy ground, an all over design that never breaks rhythm. The center holds a lobed 8 petal medallion on an ivory and pale gold ground, filled with turquoise and red palmettes around a small square rosette core, with a stepped pendant above and below. The 4 corner spandrels answer it in the same ivory and gold. The main border runs a chain of turquoise and ivory cartouches alternating with red rosette panels on a red orange ground, framed by narrow reciprocal guard stripes and an outermost band of plain navy that squares the whole composition off.

A Navy Ground Lit by Red Orange and Turquoise

The palette is a two color argument settled in favor of both. The ground is a true navy blue, dark and slightly inky in the low angle photographs, and against it the lattice is drawn in brick and red orange so densely that from a few feet away the field reads as a warm plum. Move closer and the two separate again. Ivory does the outlining work throughout, keeping every rosette legible, and small hits of light turquoise and sky blue are scattered through the leaves, the border cartouches and the medallion, which is where the eye is meant to land. The medallion itself is buttery ivory shading into gold with scarlet and deep teal petals. The main border is the boldest red orange on the rug, the outer band returns to solid navy, and the fringe is natural undyed cotton. Nothing here has been washed pale; the color is saturated and the wool carries a soft sheen.

Tabriz Weaving and Build Quality

Tabriz sits in the northwest of Persia and has been the country's most organized weaving city for centuries, the place where workshop discipline and drawing standards were set. Tabriz weavers work with a hook ended knife and measure fineness in Raj, knots per gereh across the width, and the tradition shows in a rug like this one: straight sides, square corners, a lattice that holds its count over 13 feet of length without wandering, and a medallion that lands dead center. The wool is local highland fleece, springy and hard wearing, knotted on a cotton warp and weft that keeps the rug flat and dimensionally stable under furniture. Browse the rest of our Persian Tabriz rugs to compare drawing and knot density across the group.