10'2" x 13'11" Persian Mahal Rug | All-Over Herati Floral Field | Ivory Border | Excellent Condition

This is a true room-size Persian Mahal measuring 10'2" x 13'11", hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation with a 3/8" pile that still stands up full and even across the whole field. The drawing is the classic Mahal formula: an uninterrupted Herati lattice covering an orange red ground, framed by a wide ivory border of scrolling vine and palmettes, with a small navy diamond medallion anchoring the center rather than dominating it. At this format it reads as pattern first and medallion second, which is exactly why these rugs sit so easily under large furniture groupings. If you are working within the standard room-size footprint, it belongs with our 10x14 Persian rugs. The rug is in excellent condition and ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming it as a hand-knotted Persian piece.

Design and Motifs

The field is a Herati lattice, the pattern also known as mahi or fish: a fine diamond trellis in pale blue, each compartment holding a rosette flanked by curved serrated leaves that give the motif its fish-like silhouette. Count the repeats and the discipline of the weaving shows, with the lattice tracking straight from end to end over nearly 14 feet of length. The center medallion is small and sharply serrated, navy outlined in ivory, with a turquoise and ivory rosette at its heart and curling cloudband arms at the four corners of its frame. Matching navy corner spandrels sit at the four corners of the field, each filled with the same scrolling arabesque. The main ivory border carries alternating palmettes and rosettes on a continuous vine, flanked by narrow guard stripes of running floral meander in rose, blue and gold. This is the kind of dense repeating composition collectors look for in all-over Persian rug designs, where the eye finds new detail at close range without the room feeling busy from standing height.

The Color Palette: Orange Red, Ivory and Deep Navy

The ground is an orange red, warmer and brighter than a burgundy, closer to a clean madder brick with a slight tomato cast where the light strikes the pile directly. Against it the lattice reads cool: medium light blue for the trellis lines, deeper indigo for the leaf tips, with the rosettes picked out in rose pink, soft ivory white, saffron gold and the occasional note of turquoise at the center of a flower head. The medallion and the corner spandrels bring in a near-black navy that gives the composition its weight, while the wide border shifts the whole rug to ivory and cream, keeping the red from closing in on itself. Abrash, the gentle tonal shift natural to vegetable-dyed village wool, moves through the field in broad soft bands rather than hard lines. For buyers building a warm traditional room, it sits comfortably among our red and burgundy Persian rugs, and the ivory border makes it far easier to place against cream walls and dark wood than a navy-ground rug of the same size.

Mahal Weaving and the Sultanabad District

Mahal rugs come from the villages of the Sultanabad district around Arak in west-central Persia, the region that built its reputation weaving large-format carpets for Western houses from the late 19th century onward. The looms there were set up for size, which is why Mahal is one of the few Persian village groups where a genuine 10 foot by 14 foot piece is a normal product rather than a special commission. The weave here is the regional standard: a medium knot count on a sturdy cotton warp, with thick local wool that takes dye beautifully and wears slowly, so the pile stays dense underfoot in heavy traffic areas. Looking at the back of this rug, the knotting is regular and the lattice lines up row to row, the mark of a weaver who kept the pattern on track across a very long piece. That combination of honest village construction, Herati drawing and room-size scale is what has kept Mahal rugs in demand for well over a century, and this example has reached us with its colors fresh and its pile intact.