8' x 9'10" Tabriz Mahi Design Rug | Ruby Red Herati Fish Pattern | Wool and Silk, Made in India

This 8' x 9'10" rug is a dense, finely drawn Tabriz Mahi hand-knotted in India in wool with silk highlights, and it is the kind of weave that rewards a close look. The knot count is high enough to hold the tiny paired fish leaves crisp all the way across the field, and the silk catches light along the medallion outlines and the vine work so the surface shifts as you walk around it. It has never been used, the pile stands full and even, the ends are secure and the selvages are tight. Each rug ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming it as a genuine hand-knotted Oriental rug, and at roughly 8 x 10 area rug proportions it settles neatly under a standard seating group or a six seat table.

Design and Motifs

Mahi means fish, and the whole field is built from the herati unit: a small diamond lattice with a rosette at each intersection and 4 curved leaves flanking it, the leaves that weavers read as fish circling a pool. Here that lattice runs unbroken from selvage to selvage, passing straight through the medallion and the corner spandrels rather than stopping at them, which is the mark of a careful cartoon. At the center sits a layered lozenge medallion, ring inside ring, each ring scalloped and outlined in gold, finishing in a tiny ivory and olive rosette core. Slim anchor pendants drop above and below the medallion, and 4 corners repeat the same stepped scalloped outline in reverse. The main border is a classic turtle palmette and arabesque vine, with 8 petal rosettes alternating against curling acanthus leaves, framed by narrow zigzag and floral guard stripes on both sides.

A Ruby Red Field Against Ivory and Olive

The dominant color is a deep ruby red, closer to a clean jeweled red than to brick, and it reads slightly darker in the shadowed photos and brighter where light falls directly on the silk. Inside that red field the herati motifs are picked out in sand gold, cream, pale sky blue, soft rose and deep olive green, with black used sparingly as an outlining color so each small flower holds its shape. The medallion and spandrels swap the balance, working over a muted olive and taupe ground that cools the center of the rug, with mushroom, mint and ivory tones threaded through the tracery. The main border is ivory, warm rather than stark, with rust, sage, slate blue and soft brown blossoms, and the narrow salmon and pink guard stripes bridge the ivory back to the red. A plain ruby outer band finishes the edge, and the fringe is natural cream cotton.

Made in India in the Tabriz Mahi Tradition

The Mahi layout belongs to the great northwest weaving centers, but India is where most of the world's best contemporary hand-knotted work is now produced, and this rug is honest proof of it. Indian workshops weaving to this standard use the same fine cotton warp, the same tightly packed knot and the same detailed cartoon, and they can hold the drawing consistent across a full room size piece. The back, visible in the folded corner photo, shows small even knots and clear definition of every motif, which is what allows a lattice this small to stay legible over 96 inches of width. Wool of this grade takes dye cleanly and wears hard, the silk accents add luster without softening the structure, and the result is a new rug built to be used daily for decades rather than kept for display.