10' x 13'5" Persian Mahal Rug | Allover Herati Design | Red & Navy, Excellent Condition

Laid flat, this 10' x 13'5" rug reads as one uninterrupted field of small Herati diamonds in raspberry red, pulled together by an ivory outlined medallion at the center and a deep navy main border that closes the whole thing off. It is hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation, with enough body and weight to sit dead flat under a heavy dining table or a full seating group, and it comes to you in excellent condition with a certificate of authenticity. Among 10x13 Persian rugs, this is the kind that rewards two viewing distances: dense and detailed at your feet, quiet and grounded from the doorway.

Design and Motifs

The field carries the classic Herati, also called mahi or fish pattern: a repeating diamond lattice, each diamond holding a rosette and framed by four curving lancet leaves, with small 8 petal rosettes and cross florets filling every remaining gap. Because the repeat is drawn small and runs edge to edge, the effect is a true allover design rather than a staged medallion layout, and furniture can sit anywhere on it without cutting off a focal point. A stepped, ivory serrated outline traces a large elongated hexagon around the field and repeats again as a small diamond medallion at the center, where the ground drops to navy and the same lattice continues in miniature. The main border is navy with a procession of turtle palmettes, rosettes and vine work, flanked by light blue guard stripes of paired cross florets and a slim rose and olive meander, all held inside a plain red outer edge.

Red and Navy: A Closer Look at the Color

The field red is not a flat primary. It leans raspberry, with a faint cool cast where the light crosses the pile and a warmer brick tone in the low angle shots, and the outer edge band shows a deeper true red that makes the field look brighter by contrast. Against it, the border navy is genuinely dark, closer to aubergine than royal blue in the corner close-up, which gives the rug a heavy, settled frame. The drawing is picked out in ivory, and that ivory does most of the work: it outlines the medallion, lights up the rosette centers and keeps 134 square feet of small pattern legible. Soft rose pink, olive green, camel and a pale sky blue appear in the leaves, palmettes and guard stripes, with dark brown outlining that sharpens every diamond. In a room this is a warm red rug first, a blue rug second, and it will sit comfortably with walnut, oak, brass and cream upholstery.

Mahal Weaving and the Persian Village Tradition

Mahal rugs come from the villages around Arak in west central Persia, the district that also gave the world Sultanabad weaving, and they are the reason large Persian room-size rugs became a furnishing standard rather than a court luxury. The looms there were wide, the wool was long staple and springy, and weavers worked classic city patterns such as the Herati in a slightly bolder, more relaxed hand than an urban workshop would use. You can see that character here in the way the lattice breathes a little differently from one corner to the next and in the small drawing shifts where the medallion outline turns. The back view shows tight, even rows on a cotton foundation with clean selvages and plain ivory fringe, which is exactly what you want on a floor this size: a rug built to be walked on for generations rather than admired from a rope line. If you like the honest, hard-wearing side of Persian weaving, this is the family it belongs to.