5'6" x 7'10" Indian Tabriz Mahi Rug | Wool and Silk | Ivory and Light Brown

A 5'6" x 7'10" rectangular rug knotted in India in the Tabriz Mahi drawing, with a pile of wool and silk. From a few feet away it reads as a warm ivory field flecked with rust and blue, with a single light brown medallion sitting a little above centre and a broad ivory border running the whole way round.

Design

The field is the Mahi, or fish, version of the herati: a lattice of small diamonds, each one enclosing a rosette and flanked by the curved lanceolate leaves that give the pattern its name. The repeat is drawn small and holds its rhythm across the full width, with a barely-there change of ground tone where the weaving progressed. Over it sits a lobed medallion, outlined in a pale cream line and filled with its own closer herati, with a long pendant at each end and matching quarter-medallions in the four corners. The main border carries alternating palmettes and eight-petalled rosettes on an ivory ground, fenced by narrow camel and slate guard stripes and a fine reciprocal edge.

Colour

The ground is an ivory that sits close to raw wool, and the medallion and its pendants are a light brown warming to camel at the centre. Against those two, the small motifs are picked out in rust and brick red, a dusty rose that shows most clearly on the medallion outline and the border cartouches, a soft slate blue, a greyed sage and small stops of black and white. Nothing in the palette is loud: the reds are earth reds rather than madder crimsons, and the blue is cool enough to keep the browns from running together.

Making

Hand-knotted in India on a cotton foundation, with wool forming the body of the pile and silk used through the medallion, the outlining and parts of the border, where it catches the light at a different angle to the wool around it. The back, shown here folded at the border, is evenly knotted and the drawing is legible from the reverse. The rug is new and in perfect condition, with full pile and plain white fringes at both ends.