9'9" x 12'9" Persian Tabriz Rug | Red Floral Medallion | Excellent Condition

This is a full room-size Persian Tabriz at 9'9" x 12'9", hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation with a 3/8" pile that still stands upright and even across the whole field. The drawing is the classic Tabriz formula done properly: one eight-lobed medallion anchored dead center, long pendants reaching north and south, deep cornerpieces that frame the field without crowding it, and a triple border that gets progressively finer as it moves outward. The pile depth, the tight back shown against the ruler in the last photograph, and the straight, true edges all point to a well-kept piece that has had an easy life. It covers a 10x13 footprint, which is the standard American living room and formal dining room size, and it ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming origin, materials and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

The center is an 8 petal star medallion built in concentric layers, each layer stepped and outlined so the eye reads depth rather than a flat disc, with small rosettes and split palmettes packed inside it. From the top and bottom of the medallion a long cusped pendant drops into the field, and the 4 corners carry large dark spandrels filled with the same vocabulary of palmettes, curling serrated leaves and tiny blossoms. The open field between these elements is not empty: it carries a dense all over scroll of vine work, feathery cloud bands, boteh-like leaf forms and detached flowerheads, all drawn in the curved line that separates true Tabriz draftsmanship from village work. The border scheme runs three bands. A wide main border of linked palmettes and vine on a dark ground sits between two narrower guard stripes of running flowerheads and reciprocal half rosettes, and the whole thing is closed by a plain red outer edge and ivory cotton fringe at both ends.

Color

The field is a saturated raspberry red, cooler and more crimson than a brick or rust red, and it has the slight tonal movement across the width that hand-dyed wool always shows when it is seen in raking light. Against it the main border and the spandrels are laid in a very dark navy that reads as black at normal viewing distance, which is what gives the rug its graphic punch from across the room. Inside that dark ground the palette opens up: teal and petrol blue, soft sea green, warm apricot and peach, rose pink, cream and ivory outlines, and small accents of chocolate brown. The medallion itself is the brightest moment in the rug, a ring of apricot and ivory petals around a core of strong teal blue with pink and ochre centers. The guard stripes pick up a lighter sky blue that lifts the dark border and keeps the three bands from reading as one heavy mass. Buyers shopping the red and burgundy Persian rugs group will find this one on the cool, jewel-toned side of red rather than the orange side.

Origin and Weaving Quality

Tabriz sits in northwest Persia and has been a weaving capital for centuries, long enough that its workshops set the measuring system the rest of the trade borrowed, the Raj count taken across the width of the rug. Tabriz weavers work on a cotton foundation with a hook-ended knife and build their rugs to a drawn cartoon, which is why Tabriz pieces hold a symmetrical medallion and a clean curved vine over a 12 foot length instead of drifting the way freehand village work does. This piece shows that discipline: the medallion sits true, the cornerpieces match one another, and the border turns the corner without the pattern breaking. The back photograph shows a tight, regular knot structure and a firm handle, and the 3/8" wool pile has the dry, springy feel that northwest Persian fleece gives. If you are comparing it against other 10x13 Persian rugs, the things to weigh here are the condition, the depth of remaining pile and the fact that the dark border makes the rug work in a room with wood floors or a lighter wall without disappearing into either.