9'1" x 12' Oriental Rug | Black Mahi Herati All Over Design | Wool and Silk, Never Used

This is a brand new, never used 9'1" x 12' hand-knotted rug worked in the Mahi Herati Tabriz design, with a pile of wool carried on silk highlights and a cotton foundation. The field reads almost black under normal light, and against it the repeating lattice glows in cream, gold and soft pink. At 109" by 144" it sits squarely in the most useful room size there is, and shoppers comparing 9x12 Oriental rugs will notice immediately how much finer the drawing is here than in the usual commercial weave. Every rug we ship leaves Freeport with a certificate of authenticity that records the size, materials and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

Mahi means fish, and the name comes from the pair of small curved leaves that flank each rosette in the diamond lattice, read by weavers as fish circling a pond. Here that all over Herati layout repeats across the whole field with no medallion to interrupt it, each diamond outlined in gold and filled with a tiny 8 petal rosette, and rows of hooked leaves and rainbow-shaded palmettes packed into the spaces between. The main border runs a black ground with alternating shield palmettes and turtle-form vinery in cream, olive and rose, framed by a wide ivory band of small boteh figures and by several narrow guard stripes picked out in red. The corners resolve cleanly, which is the first thing to check on a repeating pattern of this density, and the ends finish in original hand-tied cream fringe.

Black Ground With Cream, Gold and Pink

The ground color is a true deep black rather than a very dark navy, which is unusual and is what gives the rug its drama. Because the field is so dark, the lighter yarns do all the work: warm cream and beige in the small star forms, a clear antique gold in the rosettes and lattice outlines, dusty pink in the larger blossoms, olive and sage green in the leafwork, and light brown shading through the vine. Where silk is used in the highlights the pile catches the light and those pinks and golds shift a full tone as you walk past, most visibly in the close-up of the rolled edge. The wide ivory minor border acts as a halo around the dark field and keeps the whole piece from reading heavy, and the overall palette is quiet enough to live with neutral walls, dark wood or a charcoal sofa.

Origin and Weaving Quality

This rug was made in China, where the better ateliers have spent decades weaving the classic Tabriz repertoire on the hook, and the Mahi Herati is the pattern they reserve for their finest work because it punishes any loss of accuracy. Look at the macro shot of the field: the lattice stays true across more than 9 feet of width, every rosette is the same size, and the silk accents are placed knot by knot rather than blocked in. That level of control needs a fine, tightly beaten weave on a cotton foundation, and the back shown in the fold photo is crisp and even with no slack. Buyers weighing the difference between this and a village piece should read our guide on what separates a Persian rug from a broader Oriental rug, because the answer is about origin, not about care or quality, and this 9'1" x 12' piece is as carefully made as anything in the showroom.