6'9" x 8' Indian Mahi Tabriz Rug | Wool and Silk | Black and Ivory

A 6'9" x 8' rug knotted in India in the Mahi Tabriz manner, with a pile of wool and silk. At a glance it reads dark: a very fine diagonal lattice covering a near-black ground, a pale medallion sitting at the centre of it, and a broad ivory border closing the rectangular field on all four sides.

The design

Mahi means fish, and the field carries the pattern that earned the name: a small diamond lattice in which each compartment holds a rosette with two curved leaves turning away from it, repeated edge to edge without interruption. Over that lattice sits a scalloped medallion on an ivory ground filled with its own finer herati drawing, a dark lobed centre holding a four-petal flower, and a pendant above and below. Two smaller floral cartouches float at the sides of the medallion, and four dark spandrels cut into the corners of the field. The main border runs palmettes and curling split leaves on ivory, with a pair of narrow guard stripes on brown and blue carrying small flower heads along each edge. The drawing is traditional from the centre out, and the repeat is held steady across the whole width.

The colour

From across a room the ground reads black; up close it is a dark aubergine brown, with the lattice itself picked out in black outline so the field has two depths rather than one. The rosettes inside it alternate ivory, rust and a soft sage, with occasional teal and blue flecks that keep the dark ground from going flat. The medallion ground is ivory tinged with sage, and the border is a clean ivory that lifts the whole rug at the edges. Rust and brown do the work in the palmettes, and the outermost edge is finished in a dark red that runs all the way round.

The making

This is a hand-knotted rug from India, with wool and silk in the pile. The silk sits in the lighter drawing, where it catches light differently from the wool around it, and the knotting is fine enough to carry the herati lattice at a very small scale, which is what the Mahi pattern asks for. The pattern itself takes its name from Tabriz in Persia; this rug is an Indian reading of it. The table records it as new and in perfect condition, with full pile and both fringed ends intact.