8'1" x 10' Mahi Tabriz Design Oriental Rug | Rust and Beige Wool and Silk | Brand New, Never Used

Laid flat, this 8'1" x 10' piece reads as one unbroken field of tiny fish motifs with a single dark medallion anchoring the center. The pile is wool with silk highlights over a cotton foundation, clipped low so the drawing stays crisp and the silk picks up light along the diamond outlines and the medallion edges. It has never been walked on, the fringe is still full and even, and the selvages are tight and straight. At this footprint it sits among the most requested proportions we stock, so it is worth comparing against the rest of our 8 x 10 rugs, and it ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming it is a genuine hand-knotted Oriental rug and not a machine-made reproduction.

Design and Motifs

The field carries the Mahi, or fish, drawing: a fine diamond lattice, each cell holding a small rosette flanked by 4 curved serrated leaves that give the pattern its fish name. The scale is small and the repeat is disciplined, so the eye reads texture first and detail second. At the center sits a stepped, lobed medallion on a black ground, with a camel gold cartouche inside it filled with palmettes, blossoms and curling leaves, and a single rosette at its heart. Matching pendants sit above and below the medallion, and 4 corner spandrels in ivory repeat the same lattice at a slightly smaller scale, framing the rust field in a soft quatrefoil outline. The main border is black, carrying alternating palmettes and vine scroll worked in cream, camel, olive and red, and it is flanked by olive-grey guard stripes of small meandering flowers, a camel minor stripe, and a plain rust outer band that runs to the hand-tied ivory fringe.

A Rust Field Framed in Ivory, Olive and Black

The dominant color is a warm rust, closer to terracotta than to true red, and the silk-highlighted outlines within the lattice lift it half a shade wherever the light moves. Beige and ivory do the framing work: the spandrels and the outer ground of the field read as soft cream, and small ivory flowerheads are scattered evenly through the rust so the field never goes flat or heavy. Black is used sparingly but decisively, in the medallion ground, the pendants and the main border, which gives the whole piece its contrast and its formality. Olive and sage run through the guard stripes and the leafwork, camel gold fills the inner medallion and the minor border, and there are small, deliberate touches of slate blue, deep red and cream in the palmettes. Against grey stone or a pale wood floor, as shown in the photographs, the rust warms the room without dominating it.

Woven in India in the Mahi Tabriz Tradition

This rug was hand-knotted in India, where the finest contemporary hand-knotted work in the world is now being made, and it is drawn to the classic Mahi Tabriz cartoon that demands an accurate, high-count weave to hold its small repeat. You can see the result on the folded-back corner: rows are even, the knot count is high enough that the lattice stays legible right to the edge of the spandrels, and the wool has been clipped short so no detail is lost in the pile. The wool is springy and durable for daily traffic, while the silk is reserved for outlines and highlights, which is exactly where it earns its keep. The cotton foundation keeps the rug flat and square, and the selvages and fringe are finished by hand rather than machine-serged, which is the detail that separates real workshop weaving from a copy.