9'3" x 13' Antique Persian Tabriz with Cream Field and Shah Abbasi Floral Design

This 9'3" x 13' antique Persian Tabriz is roughly fifty years old and has reached the rare crossover point where age has earned it antique status while the pile and structure remain in mint, brand-new condition. The cream field carries an allover Shah Abbasi floral design with no central medallion, framed by a terracotta main border populated with palmettes, leafy vines, and small wildlife figures. It is the kind of rug that anchors a room with quiet authority, equally at home under a formal dining table or stretched out in a traditional living room. For broader context on Persian weaving traditions, our complete guide to Persian rugs walks through the major weaving centers and what separates them.

Design and Motifs

The field follows the classic Shah Abbasi vocabulary, named for the 16th century Safavid king under whose patronage Persian floral design reached its highest expression. Large rosette palmettes alternate with serrated saz leaves and curling cloud bands, all connected by an open lattice of vine scrolls that wanders across the cream ground without ever feeling crowded. The drawing is curvilinear, mirrored on a vertical axis, and characteristically Tabriz in its precision. The terracotta main border tells a quieter secondary story, with stylized animal figures (small deer, hares, and birds) tucked into the floral scroll, a feature traditional Tabriz workshops have used since the 19th century to add narrative depth to a formal floral composition. Inner and outer guard borders in sage green carry small reciprocal floral cartouches that frame the whole composition cleanly.

Colors and Placement

The palette is built on a soft cream field that has mellowed beautifully with age, paired with a warm terracotta border that sits somewhere between salmon and copper depending on the light. Sage green guard borders bridge the two, and the design accents pull in burgundy, navy blue, olive, and small flashes of gold and pale pink. The overall effect is warm, traditional, and unusually flexible. The cream ground keeps the rug from reading heavy, and the terracotta border gives it enough warmth to anchor a formal dining room, library, or great room. It pairs naturally with walnut and cherry furniture, leather seating, traditional upholstery, and works equally well in transitional interiors where you want one piece of serious craftsmanship to set the tone.

Persian Tabriz Rugs and Construction

Tabriz is the historic weaving capital of northwestern Iran and one of the oldest continuously producing rug centers in the world, with a tradition that stretches back to the Safavid court ateliers of the 16th century. This rug is hand-knotted on a cotton foundation with a 100% wool pile at a documented 200 to 220 KPSI. At 111 inches wide by 156 inches long, the rug covers 17,316 square inches of surface, which at this knot density represents roughly 3.46 to 3.81 million individual hand-tied knots. A weaver working at the bench every day would typically need somewhere between twelve and eighteen months to complete a piece this size at this density. That investment of time is what gives the rug its drawing precision, the clean curvature on every vine and leaf, and the structural soundness that has carried it through five decades in mint condition. For more on choosing between wool and silk pile and what each offers in a working room, see our wool vs silk buyer guide.