Rugsville Tabriz Wool Rust Black Carpet 10822 9' x 12'

Tabriz is the carpet capital of north-western Persia and the city whose master weavers built the trade with Europe across the late nineteenth century. A Tabriz medallion design typically carries a heavily articulated centre, dense floral spandrels, and a wide border held in a closely calibrated palette. Rust and black is the deeper register of that vocabulary, where madder dye is pushed to the upper saturation and the black accent is built from layered indigo and walnut rather than from a single dye lot.

Three to four weavers worked the vertical loom for around six months. Four weavers tended the vertical loom for the better part of six months. The dye plants were madder for the rust ground, indigo and walnut layered for the black, oak gall for the outline tones, and pomegranate for the lighter cream details. Each colour matured in copper vessels for two to three weeks. After clipping the rug spent four days in sun and a long mineral wash to settle the colour into antique register.

The composition

A rust field carrying a heavily articulated black medallion at the centre, with four spandrel quarters at the corners drawn in the same black with cream filigree. The field between is dense with floral tracery in cream and walnut. The border is a triple band, the principal one in black with a vine and palmette repeat, the two guards in cream and faint madder. The black holds the geometry. The rust holds the warmth. The two values move toward one another over the first decade as the wool relaxes.

What you are buying

Antique Tabriz carpets at 9' x 12' with comparable medallion treatment carry estimates of thirty-five to seventy-five thousand US dollars at international auction. This rug is woven on the same vertical loom, in the same Persian knot, in long-staple wool, with the same plant-dye discipline. At one and a half lac it sits well below the auction comparable and appreciates with use rather than depreciating.

The piece in a room

9' x 12' (274 x 366 cm) anchors a primary drawing room. The medallion centres a seating arrangement. The rust holds chalk walls and warms walnut casework. Pairs with brass detail, leather, raw linen, and a single large work above the sofa.

Conservation

Rotate the rug a half turn each spring and autumn. Vacuum weekly, suction only. Blot spills at once with cotton. Hand-wash by a wool conservator every six years. With this care the piece runs ninety years in regular use.

Reference

• Medium: hand-knotted New Zealand wool on cotton foundation
• Dimensions: 274 x 366 cm (9' x 12')
• Construction: Persian asymmetric knot
• Hands: 3-4 weavers, ~6 months
• Pile: hand-spun wool
• Dye: vegetable (madder, indigo, walnut, oak gall, pomegranate)
• Origin: India

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