8'2" x 10'2" Wool and Silk Oriental Rug | Mahi Herati Fish Design | Made in India, Never Used

This is one of the cleanest Mahi Herati weaves we have brought in this season: a brand new 8'2" x 10'2" hand-knotted Oriental rug in wool with silk highlights, worked over a cotton foundation on a tight, even weave. The pile is low and firm, the drawing holds its line across all 4 corners, and the silk catches light in the medallion and the small floral sprays scattered through the field. It has never been on a floor, the ends and sides are original and untouched, and it ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming that it is hand-knotted. At just over 8 by 10 feet it is a true room-size piece, at home under a dining table or floating a seating group without crowding the walls.

Design and Motifs

The field is a continuous Herati lattice, the pattern weavers call mahi, or fish: a diamond grid with a small rosette at each junction and 4 curved leaves turning around it like fish circling a pond. Because the repeat is tiny, the whole field reads as texture from standing height and only resolves into individual flowers when you crouch down, as in the close detail photos. Sitting on that ground is a stepped, scalloped medallion frame in ivory, carrying the same Herati repeat at reduced scale, with a dark indigo inner medallion holding a symmetrical 4 lobe palmette bouquet. Matching pendants finish the medallion top and bottom, and the corner spandrels repeat the ivory ground so the composition closes cleanly. The main border is an ivory band of curling acanthus leaves, palmettes and vine work, flanked by a camel guard stripe of small rosettes and a slate blue minor stripe, then a plain burgundy outer edge that frames the whole rug.

Burgundy, Ivory, Green and Camel

The field is a deep burgundy, closer to aged wine than to fire red, and the density of the black, ivory and green outlining inside the Herati lattice darkens it further so the ground looks almost chocolate from across the room. Small ivory 4 petal florets pop against that ground at regular intervals, joined by soft sage green leaf work, muted blue dots and a warm rust that ties the field back to the border. The ivory of the medallion and main border is a true cream rather than a bleached white, which keeps the contrast rich instead of harsh. Camel and olive carry the guard stripes, and the silk highlights show up as a lighter sheen along the medallion lobes and the leaf tips. Against grey stone or pale oak the burgundy reads warm and grounding; against cream walls the ivory border lifts the whole floor.

Woven in India in the Mahi Tabriz Tradition

This rug was hand-knotted in India, where most of the world's good contemporary hand-knotted work is now made, by weavers working to the Mahi Tabriz cartoon. The test of a mahi design is discipline: the lattice has to stay square across 10 feet of length, the rosettes have to land on the grid every time, and the medallion has to sit dead center. On the back you can see the knot count is high and regular, the selvedges are tight, and the pile has been shorn low so the fine drawing stays legible. Wool with silk accents gives it both durability underfoot and the sheen usually reserved for far more delicate pieces, and at this size it slots naturally into the classic 8x10 area rug footprint that most American rooms are built around.