6'5" x 9'9" Persian Tabriz Rug | 50 Raj | Red Field Ivory Medallion with Rose Bouquet Spandrels | Wool and Silk on Silk
The first things you notice on this 6'5" x 9'9" Persian Tabriz are the bouquets: in each corner, an ivory cartouche holds a cluster of red roses and peach peonies, drawn so naturally they look painted. Then you see the rest of it: a cherry red field alive with palmettes, curling leaves and long-tailed songbirds, an ivory and navy star medallion at the center, and a deep navy border framed in ivory. It is a 50 Raj Tabriz, hand-knotted in wool and silk on a pure silk foundation at about 400 knots per square inch, with an unusually high share of silk worked into the flowers. It has never been used, looks as if it came off the loom today, and comes with our certificate of authenticity.
Design and Motifs
The medallion is built in 3 layers. At its heart, 8 burgundy petals with small blue rosettes radiate from a pale star inside a gold frame. Around them, a scalloped ivory ring is scattered with pink and salmon palmettes and fine sprays of leaves. The outer ring is navy, set with a chain of mint and ivory lobed cartouches, each holding a small flower, and its edge breaks into a jagged silhouette outlined in white. Navy pendants above and below lead into the field, where everything is mirrored with care: Shah Abbasi palmettes in ivory, gold and mint, feathery curved leaves in sky blue and blush, small star flowers, and pairs of long-tailed songbirds perched among the vines near each corner. The 4 spandrels are a warm camel gold, edged in a black and white scalloped line, and each holds an ivory cartouche with its rose and peony bouquet, plus a small lavender tip at the corner. The main border is navy, alive with large lotus palmettes in red and blush, salmon and sky blue arabesque cartouches and scattered blossoms. It sits between ivory guard borders of salmon arabesques and narrow stripes of tiny pink rosettes, with a fine red edge outside.
The Colors: Cherry Red, Navy and Camel Gold
The field is a clear cherry red, warm and saturated, the color that defines the rug from across a room. Navy, close to midnight, anchors the main border and the outer ring of the medallion, giving the whole design a strong, elegant frame. Camel gold fills the 4 spandrels and adds a soft warmth that bridges the red and the navy. Ivory carries the medallion center, the bouquet cartouches and both guard borders, and keeps the rug feeling bright. The supporting palette is wide: mint green in the medallion cartouches and leaves, salmon and rose pink in the arabesques and border palmettes, sky blue in the feathery leaves, olive in the stems, lavender at the spandrel tips and chocolate brown in the outlines. The bouquets themselves combine deep red, rose and peach. Because so much of the floral work is silk, those flowers have a soft sheen that shifts as you walk around the rug. The fringe is the natural ivory of the silk foundation.
Tabriz: The Raj System and a Silk Foundation
Tabriz, in northwest Persia, has been one of the country's great weaving cities for centuries, and its workshops grade their quality on the Raj system: the number of knots across one gereh, about 2.75 inches of width. A 40 Raj rug is commercial quality, and 50 Raj marks a genuinely fine piece. That is where this rug sits, at about 400 knots per square inch, woven on silk warps that pack the knots tightly and keep the rug flat and square. A silk foundation is not standard for Tabriz work at this size, and combined with the heavy silk in the flowers it lifts this piece well above the usual. Among Persian Tabriz rugs in this room size, a never-used wool and silk piece on silk with drawing this detailed is a rare find, ready for a living room, dining room or bedroom.
