9' x 12' Mashad Design Rug | Maroon Field, Ivory Border, Navy Medallion | Hand-Knotted in India

This is a full room size piece, hand-knotted one knot at a time in India on a cotton foundation with a wool pile, and drawn in the classic Mashad medallion layout. The proportions are the workhorse of formal rooms, which is why 9 x 12 area rugs remain the single most requested format we import. The pile still carries its original height and sheen, the ivory fringe is clean and evenly tied, and the rug has never been used on a floor. Every piece we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming it is a genuine hand-knotted rug rather than a machine-made reproduction.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a large lobed medallion on a near-black navy ground, with an ivory inner cartouche filled with small rosettes and paired leaf forms, and slender pendants reaching toward each end of the field. Four ivory corner spandrels answer the medallion, each one carrying dense curling arabesque vinework and a dark inset panel, so the eye is pulled diagonally across the whole rug. Between medallion and spandrels the maroon field is covered in an all-over lattice of scrolling vine, palmettes, budding blossoms and small 8 petal rosettes, drawn fine enough to read clearly from standing height. The main ivory border runs a meandering vine with alternating flower heads, framed on both sides by narrow guard stripes of star rosettes on a maroon ground, and the outer edge finishes in a solid maroon selvage.

Color Palette

The field is a deep maroon leaning toward wine, warm rather than bright, and it holds its tone evenly from end to end with only the natural sheen shift you get when wool is viewed from opposite directions. Against it the medallion ground reads almost black with a blue cast, which gives the center real weight, while the ivory of the inner cartouche and the corner spandrels is a soft wheat cream rather than a stark white. The drawing inside the field mixes sage green and olive vines, muted gold and ochre blossoms, dusty rose and terracotta petals, with fine ivory outlines separating each element so nothing muddies. Slate and teal blues appear in the guard stripes and in small leaf accents. It is a traditional maroon and ivory scheme that sits comfortably with dark wood, brass and warm neutral walls.

Origin and Weave

Mashad is the great weaving city of the Khorasan region, known for a generous central medallion floated on a red ground with an all-over floral field, and that formula is exactly what is reproduced here. This rug itself was hand-knotted in India, which is where most of the world's best contemporary hand-knotted work is now made, by weavers working from graphed cartoons on vertical looms. The result is a well balanced Oriental rug with straight sides, square corners and a knot count fine enough to carry the curved vine and small floral heads without the drawing turning blocky. The wool is springy and takes light well, the cotton warps are tightly packed, and the back shows clean, even rows of knots with hand-tied fringes at both ends.