9'3" x 13'6" Persian Mahal Rug | All-Over Plum Lattice Field | Red Floral Borders | Excellent Condition

This is a room-filling hand-knotted Mahal, 9'3" x 13'6", with a plum to aubergine field carrying an all-over diamond lattice and a wide brick red border of palmettes and curling vine. It belongs to the family of Persian Mahal rugs woven in the villages of the Arak district of west central Persia, the group that built its reputation on heavy wool, warm vegetal tones and designs drawn big enough to read across a whole room. The pile is wool on a cotton foundation, the handle is substantial without being stiff, and the pile stands even from end to end with no low spots or repairs visible in the photographs. At 9'3" x 13'6" it sits squarely in the large Persian rug range, long enough for a full seating group or a 10 seat dining table. Every rug we ship leaves Freeport with a certificate of authenticity recording origin, materials, size and knotting.

Design and Motifs

The field is laid out as a continuous diamond lattice, each lozenge outlined in ivory and filled with a small 8 petal rosette or a cluster of serrated leaves and blossoms, so the whole surface reads as one connected trellis rather than a central medallion scheme. This is classic all-over design drawing, and it is the practical choice in a 13'6" room because furniture can sit anywhere on the rug without hiding a focal point. Inside the lattice the weaver alternated rosette centers with small palmettes and stepped leaf forms, and at the 4 corners the pattern simply runs into the border the way village looms resolve a repeat. The main border is broad and floral: large pomegranate and palmette forms on a red ground, joined by a thick vine, with a repeating ivory guard stripe of small flower heads on each side and a narrow blue minor stripe outside that. The close-up of the border shows how freely the drawing was done, with slight shifts in the size of each palmette that mark the piece as handmade village work rather than a mechanical repeat.

Color Palette

The ground is the most unusual thing here: a plum to aubergine purple that leans mauve where the light hits the pile and deepens to a dark grape in the shaded areas, giving the field a soft shimmer across its 13'6" length. Against that sit orange-red and tomato rosettes, soft gold and butter yellow flower centers, ivory outlines on every lattice bar, sage and olive green leaves, and quiet blue grey details in the smaller blossoms. The main border swings the temperature the other way with a clear brick red field, and the ivory guard stripes separate the two zones cleanly so the purple never muddies into the red. The combined effect is a genuine multi color rug that still has one dominant mood, warm red at the perimeter framing a cooler violet center. In practice it works with mahogany and walnut furniture, with brass, with cream and oatmeal upholstery, and it is a far more interesting choice than a plain red field for anyone who wants a traditional Persian rug that does not look expected.

Mahal Origin and Weaving Quality

Mahal rugs come from the villages around Arak in west central Persia, the old Sultanabad weaving district, and they were woven from the late 19th century onward for large western rooms, which is why the group is so strongly associated with generous sizes like this 9'3" x 13'6". Mahal was never a city atelier product and was never meant to be: the knot count is moderate by design, the wool is left long, and the strength of the weaving goes into tough, springy pile and dyes that mellow rather than fade. The back of this rug shows a regular, well-packed knotting across a cotton foundation, with the lattice reading just as clearly from the reverse as from the face, which is the sign of a weaver who kept good tension over a 13 foot warp. The selvages are intact and the ivory fringe is even. That combination, heavy wool pile and honest village construction, is why Mahals stay on floors in high-traffic rooms for generations instead of being retired to a wall.