11'6" x 16' Persian Tabriz Rug | Ivory Mahi Herati Field | Wool and Silk Oversize

Mahi is the design Tabriz is judged by, and this 11'6" x 16' piece shows why. The ivory ground carries thousands of small fish pattern elements drawn at a scale that only a tight weave allows, and the silk worked in among the wool lifts the medallion and the outlines so the surface changes as you walk around it. At 138" by 192" it belongs in the category of oversize Persian rugs that are bought once and kept, wide enough to seat a full sectional on the pile and long enough to run a 12 seat table without floating. The pile is wool and silk on a cotton foundation, the condition is perfect, and the rug ships with a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The field is a continuous Herati lattice, the mahi or fish pattern, built from a diamond frame, a rosette at each junction and 4 curved lanceolate leaves that read as fish swimming around the flower. Over that lattice sits a layered scalloped medallion, drawn as a set of concentric lobed rings that step outward from an ivory core through copper, sage and rust bands, with a small cusped pendant at the head and foot on the long axis. The corner spandrels repeat the same scalloped drawing in quarter form, so the eye reads one continuous system rather than a medallion dropped onto a field. The main border is a wide coral band of palmettes, rosettes and thin curling vine, punctuated by small ivory cartouche shapes, and it is framed on both sides by narrow guard stripes of running vine that keep the border from overpowering the pale ground.

The Ivory, Rust and Coral Palette

The ground is a warm ivory, closer to cream and old parchment than to white, and because the Herati lattice is outlined in fine dark wool the field reads as a soft textured haze from standing height and resolves into individual flowers up close. The medallion moves through rust, burnt copper and apricot, with one ring in a muted sage green and another in pale ivory, so the center has depth instead of a single block of color. Coral carries the main border, a dusty salmon tone that softens the rust of the medallion, while a deeper green outer band and green guard stripes wrap the whole rug and pick up the sage inside the field. Small accents of burgundy, gold and dark brown sit in the border flowerheads. The silk in the pile takes the light differently from the wool, so the outlines and the medallion rings shift between matte and luminous depending on where you stand.

Tabriz Weaving in Northwest Persia

Tabriz sits in the northwest corner of Persia and has been the commercial and technical center of Persian weaving for centuries, the city where the Herati mahi design was refined into the precise, small scale drawing collectors look for. Tabriz weavers measure fineness in Raj, the number of knots across a gereh of roughly 2.75 inches, and mahi at this scale is not attempted on a coarse loom: the fish and rosettes would collapse into blur. Using a hooked knife and adding silk into a wool pile is also Tabriz practice, giving the outlines their crispness and the medallion its sheen. A rug of this length has to stay true over 16 feet of weaving, which takes a well built loom and a disciplined workshop, and it is that combination of scale and control that separates the better Persian Tabriz rugs from the ordinary ones.