9'10" x 13'2" Persian Tabriz Rug | All-Over Herati Mahi Design | Navy Field, Excellent Condition

This is the workhorse of the Persian world done properly: a room-size Tabriz at 9'10" x 13'2", hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation, with a deep navy field carrying an all-over Herati repeat and a brick red border that frames the whole piece like a picture. It is a rug you can live on. The 3/8" pile is dense and even, the handle is firm rather than floppy, and the reverse shows tight, regular rows with the pattern reading almost as clearly from the back as the front. Condition is excellent, with full pile, straight sides and intact ends. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming origin, materials and hand-knotted construction, and this one sits squarely in the sweet spot of 10x13 Persian rugs that anchor a full living room or a long dining table without crowding the walls.

Design and Motifs

There is no central medallion here. The navy field is worked edge to edge in an all-over Herati, the pattern Persian weavers call mahi, or fish: a diamond lattice with a rosette at each intersection and 4 curved lanceolate leaves turning around it, the shapes that gave the design its fish name. Between the lattice points sit stepped hooked panels, small 8 petal rosettes, palmettes, cypress and weeping willow sprays, and scattered boteh in ivory outline. The drawing is angular and confident, lines held straight and corners resolved cleanly, which is the mark of a weaver following a properly squared cartoon. The main red border runs a turtle palmette and vine sequence alternating diamond cartouches with serrated leaves, and it is flanked by ivory guard stripes of running vine and reciprocal meander that keep the heavy red from closing in on the field. Corners in the border turn correctly on all 4 sides.

A Navy Field Lit by Red, Ivory and Gold

The ground is a true midnight navy, dark enough at a distance to read almost black, and that depth is what makes the rest of the palette work. Against it the weaver placed brick and tomato red rosettes, warm ivory and cream outlines, saffron and gold sprays, soft rose, sage and bottle green leaves, and small touches of pale sky blue in the lattice hooks. The effect up close is genuinely multicolored, a mosaic of small bright shapes, while from across the room the eye reads navy and red with an ivory frame. The main border is a clear madder red, a shade or two warmer than the reds inside the field, and the ivory guard stripes give a bright line of separation on every edge. Dark navy fields are practical as well as handsome: they hide the traffic of a busy room and they let pale furniture, oak floors and cream upholstery sit above them without competing.

Tabriz: Weaving Capital of Northwest Persia

Tabriz sits in the northwest of Persia and has been the commercial and technical center of Persian weaving for centuries, the city that supplied cartoons, dyers and master weavers to half the country. Tabriz fineness is measured in Raj, the count of knots per gereh across the width, and the city's workshops cover everything from sturdy commercial 40 Raj room sizes to 70 Raj collector pieces. This rug belongs to the practical end of that tradition, and that is a compliment: the wool is springy and high in lanolin, the knotting is regular, the selvedges are tight and the whole piece was built to be walked on for generations rather than admired from a distance. If you want a large Persian rug that survives dogs, dining chairs and children while still showing real Tabriz drawing, this is the type to buy.