2'9" x 16'3" Indian Tabriz Mahi Runner | Wool and Silk | Black and Ivory

At 2'9" x 16'3" this is a long hall runner, knotted in India in wool with a touch of silk. From a few paces off the field reads as a single dark band with a row of pale medallions down the middle; up close it resolves into a small, even lattice of flowerheads and leaves. The rug is new and in perfect condition, with the fringes still full at both ends.

Design

The pattern is Tabriz Mahi, the fish design, named for the paired leaves that curl around each small rosette in the lattice. Five ivory lozenge medallions sit at even intervals along the length, each with a stepped floral centre and a small pendant cartouche above and below, and half-medallions of the same drawing run along both long edges so the field never looks empty between them. The ends close with corner spandrels drawn in camel over the same lattice. The main border is ivory, carrying alternating palmettes and angular cartouches on a thin scrolling vine, set between a narrow olive guard stripe and a brown outer stripe, with a black selvedge finishing the edge.

Colour

The ground is a true black, and everything in the field is read against it: madder rust in the rosettes, gold and camel in the diamond outlines, and small pale grey-blue leaves scattered through the lattice that do most of the lightening work. The medallions and the main border are ivory, warm rather than white, which keeps the contrast with the black from turning hard. Olive green appears in the guard stripe and in occasional leaves, and a dull mauve turns up in the border palmettes. Against a wood floor the whole thing sits brown-black rather than cold.

Making

This is a hand-knotted rug, wool pile with silk used sparingly, mostly in the medallion outlines and parts of the border drawing, where it catches the light against the matte wool around it. The weave is fine enough to hold the Mahi lattice at this narrow width without the motifs crowding into one another, and the back shows the pattern cleanly through, as the folded corner photograph makes plain. The pile is cut low and even, with a plain black-edged selvedge and plied cream fringe at both ends.