9'9" x 12'7" Persian Tabriz Rug | Catalina Blue Field, Red Medallion | Excellent Condition

Blue grounds are the harder thing to do well in Tabriz weaving, and this 9'9" x 12'7" piece is a good example of why the town keeps trying. The field reads as a clear Catalina blue, cool and even across nearly 13 feet of length, and the drawing sits on top of it in madder red, ivory, rose and olive without ever muddying. Hand-knotted on a cotton foundation with a 3/8" wool pile, it is a true room-size piece that settles a formal seating group or a long dining table, and it sits squarely in the most useful band of 10x13 Persian rugs. Condition is excellent, with full even pile and clean sides and ends, and the rug ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming its Persian origin, materials and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

The layout is the classic Tabriz medallion formula, drawn with unusual crispness. At the center sits a lobed red medallion outlined in ivory, holding an ivory cartouche with an 8 petal rosette at its heart and small stepped palmettes reading outward in pale blue and gold. Two red pendants drop from the top and bottom points, each finished with a small ivory cusped finial. Around the medallion the field is filled edge to edge with an all-over pattern of palmettes, curling serrated leaves, flowering branches and small vase forms, all connected by fine vine work so nothing floats loose. The 4 corners carry large ivory spandrels drawn as flowering branches with clustered red blossoms and slender stems, a softer counterpoint to the busy field. The main border runs on a red ground with alternating shield cartouches and blossom groups, flanked by narrow navy guard stripes with a running vine, and the whole thing closes with fine outer stripes that keep the composition tight.

The Catalina Blue Field and Its Contrasts

Catalina blue is a bright, slightly green-leaning blue, and here it is held steady across the entire field with only the gentle tonal movement good hand-dyed wool always shows. Against it, the medallion and border read as a warm madder red, deep rather than orange, and the ivory of the spandrels and medallion center supplies the light that keeps the palette from going heavy. The secondary colors are where the weaver's eye shows: dusty rose in the palmettes, a soft sage and olive in the leaves, pale sky blue in the small rosettes, touches of gold and a near-black navy used for outlining. Navy returns in the guard stripes to frame the red border and echo the field. In daylight the blue is lively and almost coastal, and under lamplight it deepens toward indigo while the reds warm up, so the rug behaves like two different pieces across the course of a day.

Tabriz Weaving in Northwest Persia

Tabriz sits in the northwest of Persia and has been the country's most organized weaving city for centuries, working to a workshop standard on the Raj system, where the count of knots across a gereh of about 2.75 in tells you the grade of the piece. What separates Tabriz from village weaving is the cartoon: a designer draws the medallion, the spandrels and the border first, and the weavers follow it so the curved lines stay true and the 4 corners resolve symmetrically, which they do here. The wool of the region takes dye cleanly and wears hard, and the close-up of the reverse shows tight, regular rows with the knot nodes clearly defined, the sign of a careful loom rather than a rushed one. A 3/8" pile on a cotton foundation at this size gives you a rug that lies flat, takes furniture without crushing and stays serviceable for generations of ordinary use.