5'9" x 8'1" Tabriz Mahi Design Rug | Wool and Silk Herati Fish Field | Brand New, Never Used

This 5'9" x 8'1" rug is a brand new, never used hand-knotted piece worked in the Tabriz Mahi drawing, with a pile of fine wool carrying silk through the medallion outlines, the pendants and the small floral highlights. You can see the silk working in the photographs: the ivory medallion and the thin scalloped outlines catch light at a different angle than the matte wool around them, which is exactly how the design is supposed to read. The weave is tight and even, the cotton foundation is flat, the handle is supple rather than stiff, and the ends and sides are sound with full ivory fringe at both ends. At 69" by 97" it covers a seating group, a modest dining table or the foot of a bed without crowding the room. The rug ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming it as a genuine hand-knotted piece.

Design and Motifs

The field is covered edge to edge with the Mahi, or fish, lattice: a grid of small diamonds, each one holding a rosette flanked by 4 curved lanceolate leaves that read as fish circling a pool. That is the motif the design is named for, and it is drawn here at a small scale, which takes a steady hand because the repeat has to stay square across the whole 97" length. Sitting on top of that all over lattice field is a large lobed medallion in ivory, with a dark rosette core at the center and a scalloped ivory cartouche pendant at the head and the foot. Two small side cartouches break the field at the midpoint, and the 4 corners carry stepped near-black spandrels outlined in pale green, each filled with its own miniature version of the lattice. The border system runs 5 bands deep: a wide main border of palmettes and 8 petal rosettes linked by vine, flanked by narrow reciprocal and meander guard stripes that keep the whole composition framed and quiet.

Black, Ivory and Sage Color Story

The field is black, but it is not a flat black. The lattice outlines are drawn in deep wine and brown over a near-black ground, so in raking light the field warms to a plum and mahogany tone, and in overhead light it settles back to charcoal black. The macro shots show the small knot level detail clearly: ivory cross flowers, dark teal rosette centers, olive and sage leaves and rust accents scattered across the dark ground like points of light. Against that, the ivory medallion and the pale gold spandrel outlines carry the drawing, with soft blush and salmon tones in the scalloped edges. The main border shifts to a sage green and ivory ground with terracotta and brick palmettes, a cool counterweight to the warm dark field, and the outermost selvage is a clean deep red. Brown, rust and sage are the connecting notes, which makes this an easy rug to live with over wood floors or against warm neutral walls.

Made in India in the Tabriz Mahi Tradition

This rug was hand-knotted in India, and that is worth saying with confidence rather than apology: India is where most of the world's good contemporary hand-knotted work is now made, and the best workshops there weave the classic Tabriz Mahi cartoon to a standard that holds up next to far more expensive pieces. The tell is in the drawing. A fine Mahi field only works if the lattice stays true and the medallion lobes stay symmetrical, and that requires a high knot count, careful loom tension and weavers who know the pattern by heart. You can see the result on the folded back shots: a dense, fine grain, crisp motif edges, and a wool and silk pile with enough body to take furniture and traffic. If you are weighing the differences between a workshop piece like this and other traditional weaves, our guide on what separates a Persian rug from a broader Oriental rug explains how origin, design and weave quality each factor into value.