9'10" x 13' Persian Tabriz Rug | Mahi Herati Fish Design | Wool & Silk Pile, 2000s

This is the classic Mahi drawing that made Tabriz famous, worked at room scale in wool with silk accents on a cotton foundation. The 9'10" x 13' field carries a tight, endlessly repeating Herati lattice around a layered oval medallion, with matching quarter medallions anchoring the 4 corners and slim pendant finials running out along the long axis. It is a well used but honest piece from the 2000s, in very good condition with even pile and complete ends and sides, and it will look noticeably brighter after a wash. Among 10x13 Persian rugs this is one of the more forgiving formats for a large seating group or a full dining set. A certificate of authenticity ships with the rug.

Design and Motifs

Mahi means fish, and the pattern is built from the Herati unit: a small rosette inside a diamond, flanked by 4 curved lanceolate leaves that read as fish circling the flower. Here that unit repeats in a strict grid across the entire field, thousands of times, each one drawn small enough that the surface reads as texture from standing height and only resolves into individual motifs up close. The center holds a multi-lobed oval medallion built in concentric scalloped rings, each ring outlined in pale blue and filled with its own miniature floral work, stepping inward to a small rosette core. The same scalloped outline reappears as large corner spandrels and as a faint secondary contour halfway out into the field, which gives the composition depth without breaking the lattice. The main border runs a turtle palmette and vine scroll with curled cloud bands, framed by narrow guard stripes of running rosettes.

Ivory, Rust and Green Coloring

The field ground is ivory, but because the Herati grid sits so densely over it the eye reads a warm oatmeal to light brown overall, with the ivory showing through as the glow between motifs. Inside that grid the leaves are drawn in muted sage and olive green, the rosettes in soft rust and terracotta, and the outlines in deep navy that reads almost black. The medallion is the strongest color statement on the rug: a deep brick rust ground that darkens toward oxblood at the outer lobes, banded by pale silvery blue rings that catch the silk and shift tone as you walk around the piece. Corner spandrels repeat that rust against the ivory field. The main border moves the palette toward salmon and dusty rose, with ivory palmettes, cream vine work and small green and blue flower heads lighting it up. It is a warm, low-contrast, brownish-ivory rug overall, easy to live with against wood, stone and neutral upholstery.

Tabriz Origin and Weave Quality

Tabriz sits in northwest Persia and has been the commercial and technical center of Persian weaving for centuries, the city where the Mahi layout was refined into the standard it is today. Tabriz workshops count fineness in Raj, the number of knots across a gereh of roughly 2.75 in, and the density on this piece is what allows the Herati unit to be drawn this small and this cleanly repeated across almost 13 feet of length. The back photograph shows the knotting tight and regular with the cotton warps clearly defined, and the pile is wool with silk used selectively in the medallion rings and highlight outlines, which is why those bands read brighter than the wool around them. Ends and selvedges are intact, the fringe is original, and the rug lies flat. It is a working Tabriz, priced as a piece that wants a wash rather than as a showroom-fresh weave.