9'9" x 13'6" Persian Tabriz Rug | Rare Animal Faces All Over Design | Ivory Wool

Every so often a room-size Persian rug turns up that does not repeat anything else on the floor, and this is one of them. Across an ivory wool field, a continuous vine scroll carries lion masks, ram heads, horse heads and long-eared creatures hidden inside the foliage, so what reads from the doorway as a calm all over floral turns into something far more curious once you stand over it. It measures 9'9" x 13'6", a true room size that covers a large seating group or a full dining table, and it sits comfortably with buyers shopping 10x14 Persian rugs. The pile is 3/8" wool on a cotton foundation, the condition is excellent, and the piece ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming it as a hand-knotted rug woven in Persia.

Design and Motifs

The field is drawn as a true all over design with no central medallion, a lattice of tan vine work spreading corner to corner and mirroring itself along both axes. Growing out of that lattice are sunburst palmettes whose centers have been given faces: whiskered lion masks with drawn eyes, smaller ram and antelope heads on the curl of each leaf, and pairs of horse heads facing one another across the vertical axis. Between them sit 8 petal rosettes in slate blue and navy, small coral buds, serrated split leaves and half palmettes in charcoal and cream. The border scheme runs to 5 bands: a wide tan main border with brown cartouche palmettes and more animal profiles, flanked by narrow ivory guard stripes of running rosettes and a fine brown reciprocal edge. The drawing is curvilinear throughout, with the vines resolving cleanly at all 4 corners rather than being cut off, which is the mark of a properly worked cartoon.

Ivory Field, Tan Brown Border and the Accent Palette

The ground is a warm ivory, closer to unbleached cream than white, and it takes the light differently along the pile direction so the field shifts between pale sand and soft eggshell as you walk around it. Every vine, stem and scrolling tendril is worked in tan brown, from a light camel through to a deep walnut on the larger masks, and that single family of browns is what holds the whole composition together. The accents are small and deliberate: blush and salmon pink on the buds and smaller palmettes, navy and slate blue in the rosettes, muted sage green on the leaves, and touches of charcoal outlining the animal faces. The main border is a full tone deeper than the field, a mushroom tan that frames the ivory without introducing red, so the rug stays neutral. For rooms built on cream, oatmeal, walnut and brass, this palette settles in immediately, and it photographs far softer than a classic red and navy Persian.

Tabriz Origin and Weaving Quality

Tabriz sits in northwest Persia and has been the country's design capital for centuries, the city where cartoons are drawn, where the Raj system of counting knots across the width was standardized, and where curvilinear floral work of this kind is done best. A pattern like this one, with faces concealed inside the scrollwork and perfect mirroring across a 13'6" length, only survives the loom if the cartoon is precise and the weavers are experienced; village looms simply cannot hold the line. You can see the discipline in the detail photographs: tight even rows, crisp outlines around each mask, and no drift in the border repeats. The wool is firm with a light natural sheen, clipped to a 3/8" pile that keeps the drawing legible, and it is knotted on a cotton foundation that gives the rug a flat, obedient lay. The sides are tightly overcast and the ivory fringe is full and original, both signs of a rug that has been looked after.