8'3" x 10'3" Indian Mahi Tabriz Design Rug | Black Field, Ivory Fish Medallion | Wool and Silk, Brand New

This is a brand new, never used hand-knotted rug in the Mahi (fish) layout, woven in wool with silk highlights on a cotton foundation. It measures 8'3" x 10'3", which makes it a true 8x10 area rug with a little extra length, the size most buyers need under a sofa group or a 6 seat dining table. The pile is even and tightly packed, the black ground reads almost like velvet under raking light, and the silk sits in the ivory and pale outlines where it catches the eye. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming that it is 100% hand-knotted, along with its measurements, materials and design.

Design and Motifs

The whole field is drawn in the Herati or Mahi pattern: a repeating diamond lattice, each compartment holding a small rosette flanked by four curved lanceolate leaves, the leaves that gave the design its fish name. That lattice runs edge to edge without a break, which is the hardest way to weave this pattern and the clearest test of a weaver's discipline. Sitting on top of it is a lobed ivory medallion with a scalloped, almost cloud-band outline, a smaller floral rosette at its core, and slender pendants reaching toward each end of the rug. The 4 corner spandrels answer the medallion with the same Herati filling on a lighter ground, separated from the field by a fine rust outline. The main border carries alternating palmettes and round rosettes on ivory, framed by several narrow guard stripes of vine scroll and small flowerheads, layered so the eye steps down gradually from the busy field to the plain black outer edge.

A Black Ground With Ivory, Camel and Rust

The field ground is a deep black that photographs as near charcoal in full sun and reads as a warm dark brown-black indoors, and the Herati lattice on top of it is picked out in rust, ivory, camel and olive with tiny accents of soft light blue and green inside the rosettes. The medallion and spandrels are ivory going toward cream, filled with the same small motifs in wine red, olive, navy and a dusty rose that keeps the center from looking stark against the dark field. The medallion core shifts into a soft sage and taupe, and a pale rose outline traces the scalloped edge. Border ivory is a shade warmer than the medallion ivory, with palmettes in olive, brick red and camel, and the narrow guards run tan, gray-blue and black. The overall balance is dark and formal with plenty of warm light in the middle, so it works over dark hardwood as easily as it does on pale stone.

Hand-Knotted in India to the Mahi Tabriz Standard

This rug was made in India, where most of the world's best contemporary hand-knotted weaving now happens. The Mahi layout it follows is the classic Tabriz workshop blueprint, and the Indian ateliers that specialize in it work from the same cartoons at a comparable knot count, which is why the lattice stays square across 123 inches of length and the medallion outline curves cleanly instead of stepping. The back shows a fine, regular knot with crisp motif definition, a double weft cotton foundation and hand-tied ivory fringe at both ends, and the selvedges are firm and straight. If you are weighing how a piece like this compares with a village or city weaving from Persia, our guide to what separates a Persian rug from an Oriental rug lays out the differences in weave, materials and pricing. As a new rug with full pile, this one has its entire service life ahead of it.