9'9" x 13'2" Persian Tabriz Rug | Red Field, Navy Medallion, Ivory Spandrels | Semi-Antique Wool Pile

This is a full room size Tabriz from northwest Persia, hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation and carrying the classic workshop formula: a soft brick red field, a navy octagonal medallion, and deep ivory corner spandrels that open the four corners up like windows. It has clearly been woven to be lived with rather than stored, yet the 3/8" pile is still even from selvage to selvage with no bare patches, no repairs and no visible wear in the traffic lanes, which is what earns it an excellent grading. The semi-antique character shows in the mellowed tone of the red and in the gentle abrash across the field, the kind of depth a new rug simply cannot fake. At 9'9" x 13'2" it belongs in the same bracket as our other 10x13 Persian rugs, large enough to seat a sofa and two chairs entirely on the pile. Every rug leaves us with a certificate of authenticity confirming the origin, the materials and the hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

The drawing is a Tabriz reading of the classic medallion and corner layout. At the center sits an ivory cartouche holding a small blue and green palmette flanked by two gold hooks, set inside a navy octagonal medallion whose outline steps out in flat facets rather than curves. Stepped pendants run off the medallion top and bottom, each one finished with a small navy and red rosette anchored in the field. The red ground between them is packed with angular vinework, cypress-like sprigs, split palmettes and tiny hooked leaves, so that no part of the field reads as empty. The four ivory spandrels carry the heaviest drawing in the rug: dark green serrated leaves, curled gold vines and large 8 petal rosettes, edged in a fine red outline that separates them cleanly from the field. The main navy border alternates upright vase and palmette forms with rosette clusters, framed on both sides by a narrow olive-gold guard of reciprocal blocks and small stars. The corners resolve the border pattern neatly, which is a workshop habit rather than a village one.

The Red, Ivory and Navy Palette

Red carries the rug, but it is not a single flat red. Across the open ground the tone shifts between a warm brick and a cooler cherry, the natural abrash that comes from dye lots changing during a long weave, and in raking light you can see those bands travel horizontally across the 9'9" width. Against it, the navy of the medallion and the main border reads almost black at the edges and lifts to a clear indigo where the wool catches light. The ivory of the spandrels and the central cartouche is a creamy, slightly buttery white rather than a bleached one, and it is what gives the corners their lift. Inside all of that sits the accent work: bottle green in the spandrel leaves, old gold and olive in the vines and guard stripes, soft powder blue in the small rosettes, and scattered blush pink in the flowerheads around the medallion. The overall effect is warm and traditional, and the palette sits comfortably on oak, walnut and pale wood floors alike.

Tabriz Weaving and Build Quality

Tabriz sits in the northwest of Persia and has been the country's most organized weaving city for centuries, working with drawn cartoons, the hook-knife and the Raj system of counting knots across the width. This piece is a solid mid-weight town weave rather than a 60 Raj master workshop rug, and that is exactly what makes it practical: a firm handle, a dense back with clean straight rows as seen against the ruler in the final photograph, and tough highland wool with enough lanolin left in it to shed dirt and take a shine as it is walked on. The selvages are intact and the ends are secure with the original flat woven finish and fringe. Rugs from this group are the workhorses of Persian weaving, and a 9'9" x 13'2" example in this condition will still be flat, bright and structurally sound long after the furniture standing on it has been replaced.