10' x 13' Persian Tabriz Rug | Signed Mahi Herati Field with Navy Medallion | Excellent Condition

This is a signed room-size Tabriz worked on the classic Mahi formula: a dense Herati lattice covering the whole red field, a navy medallion at center, and four gold spandrels closing the corners. The wool pile is full and even, the handle is dry and lustrous the way good Tabriz wool feels in the hand, and the rug lies flat and square with clean selvedges and original fringe at both ends. A weaver's cartouche is knotted into the field near one end, which tells you this came off a named loom rather than an anonymous one. At 130 square feet it is one of the most usable proportions in a house, sitting squarely in the 10x13 Persian rug range that fits a full seating group or a 10 seat table. Every rug we ship carries a certificate of authenticity confirming it as hand-knotted in Persia.

Design and Motifs

The field is drawn in the Mahi, or Herati, pattern: a diamond lattice of fine vines, each compartment holding a rosette flanked by 4 curved lanceolate leaves, the leaves that gave the pattern its fish name. It repeats across the entire red ground without a break in rhythm, which is the hardest part of this design to weave well over 13 feet. At center sits an elongated navy medallion filled with palmettes and a pale 8 petal rosette, finished top and bottom with slender pendants that reach into the field. The 4 corner spandrels break the red with soft gold grounds and large curling arabesque leaves, set against panels of light blue. The main border carries alternating palmette cartouches on navy, separated by fine ivory and rust guard stripes that keep the outer frame crisp rather than heavy.

Color: Deep Madder Red, Navy and Ivory

The field reads as a rich deep red with a madder warmth to it, slightly deeper toward the ends and lighter where the pile catches the light, the natural variation you get from hand-dyed wool. Against it, the medallion and main border are a saturated navy blue that gives the rug its weight and keeps the red from flattening out. Ivory does the drawing work throughout: outlines around the lattice, guard stripes, and the pale center of the medallion. The corner spandrels bring in gold and camel, lifting the 4 corners and separating field from border, with panels of light sky blue tucked behind the arabesques. Look closer at the medallion detail and you find green and teal leaves, rose and salmon florals, and small touches of soft brown, a wide secondary palette that lets the rug sit next to warm woods, cream walls or a blue upholstered room without fighting any of them.

Tabriz: Northwest Persia and the Mahi Tradition

Tabriz sits in the northwest of Persia and has been a weaving and trading center for centuries, known for disciplined workshop weaving rather than village improvisation. Tabriz fineness is measured in Raj, the number of knots across a gereh of about 2.75 inches, and the city's better workshops built their name on holding a curved line and a tight repeating lattice at high knots per square inch. The Mahi pattern is the house design of the region, and it is unforgiving: any drift in the lattice shows immediately across a field this size. On this piece the rows stay true corner to corner, the medallion is centered, and the back shows small, regular knots on a cotton foundation. Add the woven signature and you have a workshop rug rather than a market piece, in excellent condition and ready for daily use.