8'4" x 10'1" Wool & Silk Oriental Rug | Mahi Tabriz Fish Design | Brand New, Never Used

This 8'4" x 10'1" room size piece is a Mahi, or fish, design hand-knotted in wool with silk highlights, and it is brand new, never walked on, and ships with a certificate of authenticity. The whole field is covered in a miniature diamond lattice, thousands of tiny compartments each holding a rosette, with a single scalloped medallion set in the middle and 4 quiet spandrels pulling the corners in. It is one of the most disciplined drawings in the whole Oriental rug repertoire, because the pattern is so small that a single miscounted knot shows. At just over 8 by 10 feet it lands in the most useful footprint in the house, which is why 8x10 hand-knotted rugs are the size most buyers end up shopping for.

Design and Motifs

The field is a full Herati lattice: a net of small diamonds, each one framing a rosette and flanked by 4 curved lancet leaves, the shapes that give the pattern its fish nickname. Dead center sits a scalloped medallion outlined in rust and charcoal, with a gold inner ring and an ivory core holding its own tiny diamond of flowers, finished top and bottom with a small trefoil pendant. The same scalloped outline repeats as a large lobed frame around the medallion and again in the 4 corner spandrels, so the eye reads a clear layered structure even though the ground pattern never stops. The main border runs an ivory ground with round rosette medallions alternating with leafy palmettes joined by a thin brown vine, and it is held between multiple narrow guard stripes: a reciprocal saw-tooth band, a barber-pole twist, and a running flowerhead stripe on each side. Border and field never argue with each other, which is exactly what this drawing is meant to do.

A Study in Cream, Gold, Rust and Olive

The ground is a soft cream-beige that warms toward gold and camel as it moves in under the medallion frame, so the center of the rug glows slightly against the cooler ivory of the outer field and border. Against that neutral base the pattern is picked out in brick rust and a deeper madder red, olive and sage green, walnut brown, straw gold and small hits of near-black charcoal that draw the outlines and keep the tiny motifs legible. The palette is genuinely earthy rather than washed out, and in a room of oak, walnut, linen or cognac leather it reads as warm neutral rather than as a strong color statement. Anyone shopping beige and ivory rugs for a light room will find this one has far more depth than a plain solid, because the silk highlights on the flowerheads and outlines shift from pale to luminous depending on where you stand.

Hand-Knotted in India in the Mahi Tabriz Tradition

This rug was made in India, and that is a recommendation rather than an apology: India is where most of the world's good contemporary hand-knotted work is now produced, and the best Indian ateliers weave the classical Mahi Tabriz pattern at a level that would have been workshop grade anywhere. The back, shown in the fold photographs, is crisp and evenly gridded with no loose or skipped knots, the cotton warps are fine, and the pile is clipped low so the miniature lattice holds its detail instead of blurring. Wool carries the ground and silk carries the highlights, a combination that needs an accurate weaver because the two fibers take dye and light differently and any wobble in the drawing shows immediately in the silk. Hand-tied ivory fringe at both ends and tight selvages finish a piece that is built to be used, not just looked at.