2'7" x 21'2" Indian Mahi Runner Rug | Herati Fish Design | Wool & Silk | Never Used

Runners this long are made to order more often than they are found on a shelf, and at 2'7" x 21'2" this one covers a corridor most rugs cannot reach without a seam or an awkward pairing of two shorter pieces. It is hand-knotted in wool with silk highlights on a cotton foundation, narrow enough to leave a clean margin of floor on both sides, and finished with a red selvedge and hand-tied ivory fringe at each end. The pile has never been walked on: the tips are still square, the silk still catches light along the medallion outlines, and the back tag is intact. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity that records the weave, the materials and the measurements exactly as listed above.

Design and Motifs

The drawing is Mahi, the fish pattern, built from a herati lattice of small diamonds, each one holding a rosette flanked by the curved leaves that give the design its name. That lattice runs unbroken from one end of the 21'2" length to the other, and because the repeat is small it reads as texture rather than pattern when you stand over it. Seven ivory medallions are spaced evenly down the field, each with a dark blue eight lobed core, a fine scrolling interior and a slender pendant reaching toward the next one, so the eye is carried the full run of the hallway instead of stopping at a single center. The main border is a turtle palmette band on a light ground, alternating slate and camel cartouches with full open flowers, framed by narrow reciprocal guard stripes. Corner resolutions are clean, which on a runner this long is the real test of the cartoon and the weaver following it.

Color: Pom Red, Ivory and Deep Blue

The field is pom red, a warm brick toned red rather than a cherry or a blue red, and it holds its value evenly down the whole length with only the gentle abrash you expect from wool dyed in batches. Against it, the lattice outlines are worked in ivory, soft camel and a muted sage, with tiny four petal flowers in cream scattered through the grid that make the field sparkle under lamplight. The medallions are ivory to pale cream, edged in a dusty rose outline, and each one drops to a navy center so dark it reads almost black until you are standing on top of it. Blue appears again in the small rosettes throughout the field and in the guard stripes, while the wide border shifts to a pale straw and slate green ground that lifts the red rather than fighting it. The silk in the pile sits mainly in the medallion tracery and the flower heads, so those details change tone as you walk the length of the runner.

Made in India: Weave and Quality

India is where most of the world's best contemporary hand-knotted work is produced today, and this piece shows why: a tight, even knot across a 31" width, straight sides over more than 21 feet of warp, and no drift in the medallion spacing from one end to the other. Keeping a runner this narrow square on the loom for that distance takes a disciplined weaver and a well dressed loom, since any tension error compounds over the length and shows up as a wave on the floor. The wool is firm with a slight sheen, clipped at a medium low pile that suits a traffic route, and the cotton foundation gives the rug the body to lie flat without curling. If you are weighing this against a Persian piece, our guide to the difference between a Persian and an Oriental rug explains what changes and what does not.