3'8" x 17' Persian Mahal Runner | Ivory All-Over Lattice | Antique Gallery Length

Runners this long are not made to order, they are found. At 3'8" x 17' this hand-knotted Persian Mahal is a true gallery length, narrow enough for a corridor and long enough to carry a room from one end to the other without a seam or a break in the drawing. The wool pile sits low and even on a cotton foundation, the ivory ground has gone the warm oatmeal shade that only decades of light and use produce, and the weave is the honest village hand that made Mahal a household name among American decorators a century ago. It ships with a certificate of authenticity from Rugs.net.

Design and Motifs

The field runs as a continuous all-over lattice, a column of stepped diamond medallions linked edge to edge and framed by serrated hooks and small four petal flowers. Each diamond carries a rosette at its heart, some drawn as an 8 petal flower, others as a squared star, and no two are colored quite the same way, which is exactly how a village weaver keeps 17 feet of repeat from going mechanical. Between the diamonds sit little coral blossoms and angular leaf forms that fill the ivory ground without crowding it. The main border on a coral ground alternates open rosettes with stylized bird and leaf figures in indigo, and it is flanked by narrow ivory guard bands carrying a running vine, so the eye is held inside the field for the full length of the runner.

The Ivory, Coral and Blue Palette

Ivory is the anchor, closer to cream and oatmeal than to bright white, and it makes the rug read light in a narrow space where a dark field would feel like a tunnel. Against it the weaver worked coral and salmon for the border ground and many of the diamond outlines, a brick tone in the smaller blossoms, and two distinct blues, a deep indigo in the bird figures and border rosettes and a soft faded sky blue inside several of the medallions. Olive green, camel and a muted gold appear in the leaf forms and rosette centers, and there is gentle abrash across the field where dye lots changed mid-weave, a horizontal shift in the ivory that no machine could imitate. The overall effect is quiet and sun-warmed rather than saturated, which is why runners like this one sit so easily with oak floors, painted trim and both antique and contemporary furniture.

Mahal Weaving and Village Quality

Mahal rugs come from the villages around Arak in west-central Persia, the district historically grouped with Sultanabad production, and they were woven for export in large decorative sizes from the late 19th century onward. The weave is a sturdy village hand rather than a fine city knot, moderate in knot count, on a cotton foundation with hand-spun wool that has real lanolin in it, which is why the pile burnishes rather than goes dull as it wears. That toughness is the point in a 17 foot length, since a runner takes more traffic per square foot than anything else in a house, and this one has already proven it. For a long hallway, a gallery landing or a narrow library, it belongs with the best long hallway runners we handle.