2'9" x 12'6" Antique Persian Mahal Runner Rug | Joshagan Lattice Design | 1940s, Excellent Condition

This is a village-woven runner from the 1940s, 2'9" wide and 12'6" long, with the indigo field and saffron gold borders that make an antique Mahal immediately recognisable on the floor. It is a true long runner, drawn and knotted by hand in one continuous rhythm from end to end, with wool that has gone soft and slightly lustrous with age rather than thin. At 12'6" it covers a full stair flight or a long upstairs hallway runner run that most short modern runners leave bare, and the narrow 33" width keeps baseboards and door swings clear. The pile is even, the selvages are intact, the ivory fringe is original, and the back reads clean and tight in the fold photos. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming the origin, age, materials and hand-knotted construction of this exact piece.

Design and Motifs

The field carries the classic Joshagan formula: a continuous diamond lattice, each lozenge filled with a small stylised floral cluster, sprig or cypress-like tree form, repeating down the entire 12'6" length with no central medallion. It is a true all over design, which is exactly what you want in a narrow runner, because the pattern stays correct whichever end you walk in from and nothing is cut off by furniture. The drawing is angular and village-direct, with hooked leaves, stepped rosettes and tiny checkerboard fillers built square by square out of knots instead of curved onto a cartoon. Framing the field is a wide gold main border of linked cartouches and rosette palmettes, set between narrow rust guard stripes of alternating rosettes and a camel outer band of scrolling flowerheads. The end panels in the close-up photos show the weaver holding the lattice neatly to the border, with the small variations in panel size that date and identify genuine hand work.

Color: Indigo Blue, Saffron Gold and Rust

The ground is a deep indigo blue that lightens through the length into a clearer teal-toned blue, the natural abrash of hand-dyed wool dipped in separate batches. Against it the lattice motifs pick up brick rust and cochineal red, soft ivory, pale wheat, camel and a dark walnut brown that reads almost black where the outlines run. The main border is the piece's signature colour: a warm saffron gold, almost apricot where the light hits the pile at an angle, carrying blue vine work, red rosettes and ivory flowerheads. The outer guard band cools to a sandy ivory with blue and red sprigs, so the rug moves from dark centre to warm gold to light edge. The palette sits naturally on dark stained hardwood, works with brown leather, brass and cream painted woodwork, and the brown and rust notes keep the blue from reading cold.

Mahal Weaving and the Joshagan Tradition

Mahal rugs come from the villages of the Arak district in central Persia, the weaving belt that also produced the Sultanabad carpets collectors chase today. The looms there were household looms, not court workshops, and the value of the work sits in the wool and the dye rather than in a high knot count: thick, springy, lanolin-rich fleece knotted on a cotton foundation, which is precisely why a Mahal from the 1940s can still show full pile after decades of foot traffic. This piece borrows its pattern from Joshagan, a village near Isfahan whose diamond lattice was copied across central Persia because it suited long narrow formats so well. The weave here is firm and regular, the handle supple in the fold photos, and the patina of the gold border is consistent with the stated 1940s age. If you want to understand how pieces like this are placed in time, our guide on how to date an antique Oriental rug walks through the same evidence we used.