9'4" x 12'8" Persian Mahal Rug | Navy All Over Floral Field with Ivory Medallion | Semi-Antique

A room size Persian Mahal at 9'4" x 12'8", this is the kind of semi-antique village workshop piece that still does the job it was built for. The field is a deep navy, covered from border to border in ivory vinework, with a single ivory and sky blue medallion holding the centre and a wide tomato red border framing the whole thing. It is hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation, the pile measures 3/8" and stands full and even across the entire surface, the sides are straight and the ends are intact, which is why the condition reads excellent. Anyone shopping 9x12 Persian rugs should note that this one runs a few inches wider and most of a foot longer than the standard class, so it will cover more floor under a sofa group or a 10 seat table. It ships with our certificate of authenticity confirming it as a hand-knotted rug made in Persia.

Design and Motifs

The centre carries an 8 lobed medallion drawn in ivory, its interior split into brick red and sky blue panels that are themselves filled with tiny flowerheads, with slim ivory pendants reaching out above and below it toward the ends of the field. Around it runs a mirrored all over floral design: curling ivory stems, broad serrated leaves, upright palmettes and small rosettes repeating in red, blue and cream so that no large area of the navy ground is left empty. The 4 corners are closed with pale gold and ivory spandrels, each one carrying its own leaf and blossom cluster. The main border sits on a tomato red ground with large ivory and blue rosettes joined by a continuous scrolling vine, and it is flanked by narrow guard stripes: a meandering flowerhead stripe on blue, a fine black and ivory barber pole twist, and a plain navy edge that finishes the rug cleanly against the floor.

A Midnight Navy Field with Tomato Red and Ivory

The ground colour is a dark indigo navy that behaves differently depending on the light. Overhead it reads almost black in the shaded areas, while raking light across the pile pulls a soft plum tone out of the wool, which is what you see in the angled photographs. Against that depth the ivory vinework reads as warm cream rather than stark white, and the border red is a clear tomato tone that cools toward brick in the corners. Secondary colours are used sparingly and deliberately: a mid sky blue in the medallion core and in scattered leaves, pale gold in the spandrels and in a few isolated blossoms, a muted sage green on some of the leaf tips, and small notes of brown and charcoal outlining the larger flowerheads. The combination means the rug anchors a room without pulling every eye to one spot, and it sits comfortably with mahogany, walnut and warm neutral walls. If this palette is what you are after, our full selection of navy blue Persian rugs is worth comparing side by side.

Mahal Weaving in the Villages of Western Persia

Mahal rugs come out of the villages around Arak in western Persia, in the district that gives them their name, and they belong to the broader Sultanabad weaving tradition that supplied the great decorative room size pieces from the late 19th century onward. These were never micro-fine city workshop rugs and were never meant to be. The drawing is bolder and freer than Isfahan or Nain work, the wool is tough local fleece with a dry glossy handle, the pile is left generous, and the whole structure is built on a cotton foundation for stability under furniture. Look at the back in the final photograph: the knotting is regular row after row, the weave is well packed and tight for a village rug of this weight, and the handle has that characteristic Mahal firmness that explains why so many of them are still in daily use generations later. That is the real argument for a piece like this at 9'4" x 12'8": a hand-knotted wool rug of serious size and age with full pile left to give.