11'8" x 12'4" Mahal Design Oriental Rug | Coral Red Near-Square | Hand-Knotted Wool | Made in India

Measuring 11'8" x 12'4", this is one of the harder formats to find on the market: a genuine hand-knotted rug that reads as a square. The whole composition is built around that shape, with a broad sage blue diamond medallion set dead center on an open coral red field, stepped corner medallions in each of the 4 corners, and a wide rosette border that frames the field evenly on all sides. The pile is hand-spun wool on a cotton foundation, cut to a medium height that still shows the drawing crisply, and the back photographs confirm tidy, regular knotting with no repairs and an ivory fringe secured at both ends. One border panel carries an inscription woven directly into the sage ground, an unusual detail on a room-size piece of this kind. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity, and this one arrives in excellent condition with full, even pile throughout. It is among the more interesting large room-size rugs we stock, because a near-square plan solves square great rooms and big square dining layouts that a standard 9x12 simply cannot.

Design and Motifs

The layout is pure Mahal: a large, generously open field with a single strong medallion rather than an all-over repeat, so the eye has somewhere to rest. The central diamond is outlined by a scalloped ivory and olive cloud band and filled with scrolling vines, small rosettes, serrated leaf forms and a coral inner cartouche holding an 8 petal rosette. Above and below it hang stepped pendant motifs drawn in ivory and sage, the kind of angular village drawing that keeps the design from feeling formal. Each corner carries a stepped polygonal medallion with an ivory octagon at its heart, and small crosses and diamonds fill the sage ground around them. The main border alternates large ivory rosette discs with paired blossoms on a coral ground, flanked by sage guard stripes of running vine scroll, a reciprocal trefoil band and a narrow outer meander. Nothing here is crowded: the drawing is bold enough to read from standing height, which is exactly what a 12 foot square room needs.

Coral Red, Sage and Ivory Palette

The field is a warm coral red, sitting between terracotta and salmon rather than a true burgundy, and it shifts subtly across the width in soft horizontal bands. That variation is abrash, the natural consequence of hand-spun wool taking dye in separate lots, and it is what gives the open field its depth instead of a flat printed look. Against that warmth the medallion and corner pieces are a muted sage blue green, dusty rather than bright, closer to weathered copper than to navy. Ivory and cream do the outlining work throughout, sharpening the medallion edge, the border rosettes and the pendant motifs, while olive gold appears in the cloud band and guard stripes. The close-up photographs also pick up small amounts of dusty rose and mushroom brown inside the border flowers. The overall effect is soft and sun-warmed, a palette that works with walnut and oak furniture, brass, cream upholstery and old leather without ever fighting them.

Mahal Design, Hand-Knotted in India

This rug was hand-knotted in India, which is where most of the world's best contemporary hand-knotted weaving is now done. The looms there have taken over the classical village vocabulary, the Mahal medallion format among them, and they weave it with hand-spun wool, cotton warps and the same knot-by-knot method, which is why a well-made Indian piece belongs squarely in the Oriental rug category and not with machine-made goods. Quality on a piece like this is judged at the back and the edges, and both hold up: the knotting is even across the full 140" width with no pull or waisting, the selvedges are firmly overcast, the fringe is original and hand-tied, and the pile has enough body to take furniture without crushing. The woven inscription in the border marks it as a workshop piece rather than anonymous production. For a near-square room, in this palette and at this scale, it is a rug you buy once.