6'9" x 10'1" Indo-Tabriz Mahi Rug | Black Fish Pattern Field | Wool & Silk, Never Used

This is a brand new, never used hand-knotted Oriental rug measuring 6'9" x 10'1", woven in India in the classic Mahi Tabriz drawing with a wool and silk pile on a cotton foundation. The field reads almost black at a distance, then breaks open under light into a lattice of tiny rust, ivory, sage and pale blue flowerheads, with a single scalloped ivory and gold medallion floating at the center. Handle is firm and the pile is low and even, which is exactly what you want in a room rug this size: it sits flat, takes furniture legs without crushing, and the silk accents catch the light as you walk past. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming it is genuinely hand-knotted, along with the measurements, materials and design listed above.

Design and Motifs

Mahi means fish, and the name comes from the herati motif that fills the field: a small diamond lattice with a rosette at each intersection and 4 curved leaves set around it like fish circling a pond. The repeat here is tiny and disciplined, running edge to edge without a wobble in the lattice lines. At the center sits a multi-lobed oval medallion with a scalloped ivory outline, an inner ring of gold and brown petals, and a small sage framed cartouche at its core, with matching pendants at the top and bottom of the medallion axis. A wide scalloped cream spandrel surrounds the oval and softens the transition from the dark field. The main border is ivory, carrying alternating rust cartouches and 8 petal rosettes on a scrolling vine, flanked by narrow brown and black guard stripes and a fine reciprocal minor border. It is a formal, symmetrical layout with no shortcuts in the drawing.

A Black Field With Ivory, Rust and Sage

The ground is a deep black that photographs as charcoal brown in raking light, and that is what gives the rug its weight on a wood or tile floor. Against it, the herati knots are picked out in brick rust, warm terracotta, soft sage green, antique ivory and small touches of pale blue and muted pink, so the field never looks flat. The medallion and spandrels shift the palette to ivory, sand and honey gold with brown outlining and sage tracery, and the silk in the pile makes those lighter passages read brighter from one direction and quieter from the other. The ivory border is the calmest area of the rug, with rust medallions and sage leaves doing the accent work, and the black outer edge with a narrow brown finishing band frames the whole piece cleanly. Overall it is a dark, warm, neutral-friendly rug: black, brown and cream dominate, with rust and sage as the color punctuation.

Made in India, Woven in the Mahi Tradition

India is where most of the world's good contemporary hand-knotted work is now made, and a piece like this shows why. The Mahi layout is one of the most demanding traditional drawings to execute because the lattice has to stay true across more than 10 feet of length, and any slip in the knot count shows immediately in the fish pattern. The weavers here kept it clean: tight horizontal lines, crisp scalloped outlines on the medallion, and a well packed low pile with a flat, even back and a hand-overcast black selvedge. The wool is springy and takes a shine, and the silk highlights are placed in the medallion and the small florets rather than scattered for effect. At 6'9" x 10'1" it covers a standard seating group or a dining table with chairs pulled back, and you can compare it against the other 7x10 rugs we carry before you commit.