8'2" x 11'8" Wool and Silk Oriental Rug | Tabriz Mahi Fish Design | Brand New, Never Used

This is a brand new, never used room size piece measuring 8'2" x 11'8", worked in the Tabriz Mahi drawing on a deep ruby red ground. The pile is a dense wool and silk blend with a low, tight clip, so the surface stays flat and the silk content reads as a soft sheen that shifts as you walk past rather than as shine. The scale of the drawing is small and disciplined, the way the Mahi pattern should be, and the ivory medallion sits exactly on center with matching pendants and quarter medallions at 4 corners. This Oriental rug ships with a certificate of authenticity recording its exact size, materials, weave and origin.

Design and Motifs

The whole field is filled edge to edge with the Herati lattice, known as Mahi, or fish: a small diamond grid with a rosette at each intersection and 4 curved leaves turning around it like fish circling a pond. That repeat runs uninterrupted under the medallion and out into the corners, which is the mark of a properly drafted Mahi cartoon rather than a shortcut version. At the center sits a scalloped ivory medallion, feathered at its outline in soft salmon, with a near black inner cartouche carrying its own miniature lattice of cream, rust and olive blossoms. Two slim pendants extend above and below it, and two small ivory lozenges float at the medallion's east and west points. Dark spandrels close off 4 corners of the field and reverse the palette, ivory tracery on near black. The main border is ivory, set with alternating turtle palmettes and 8 petal rosettes linked by a rust vine, and it is framed by multiple narrow guard stripes in beige, slate and olive brown that step the eye down to the red selvage and hand-tied ivory fringe.

A Ruby Red Field With Ivory, Olive and Green Accents

The ground is a rich ruby red that darkens toward wine in raking light and warms toward brick where the silk catches the light, which is why the full overhead photograph and the angled floor shots read slightly differently. Against it, the lattice is picked out in cream, ivory, pale sky blue, rust and a muted olive brown, with small touches of true green in the rosette centers that keep the red from going flat. The medallion and the main border share the same ivory and beige family, so the rug has a clear light path running from the center out to the edges, while the near black spandrels and the dark medallion core anchor the composition. Secondary notes of soft salmon appear on the medallion outline and in the border vinework, and slate blue runs through the guard stripes. It is a warm, formal palette that sits naturally with mahogany and walnut furniture, burgundy velvet upholstery and cream walls, as the styled photograph shows.

Weaving Quality and Origin

This rug was hand-knotted in India, where most of the world's best contemporary hand-knotted weaving is now produced, and it is honest, high grade workshop work. The sewn back label records a 14/14 quality, a colour of red and cream, the 8.2 x 11.8 size and a statement that no child labour was used, and the folded corner photograph confirms the rest: a tight, even knot structure on a cotton foundation, straight side finishes, and a back clear enough to read the medallion outline from behind. That knot density is what allows the Mahi lattice to stay legible at such a small scale over almost 95 square feet without the drawing blurring. The pile is clipped low and packed hard, so it will take traffic in a formal living or dining room for decades, and because the rug has never been used the wool still carries its full lustre.