10'2" x 12'9" Persian Heriz Rug | Geometric Medallion | Brick Field with Ivory Corners

This is a full room size Heriz in the format collectors look for first, measuring 10'2" x 12'9" with a brick field, a broad stepped medallion and deep ivory corners that keep the drawing from ever feeling heavy. The pile is hand-knotted wool on a cotton foundation, still thick and even across the field, with the slightly waxy handle that good Heriz wool keeps for decades. Condition is excellent, the ends and sides are sound, and the colors have settled into that mellow, lived-with tone rather than being washed down chemically. It sits naturally under a long sofa run or a 8 to 10 seat table, which is exactly why 10x13 Persian rugs in this weave are so hard to keep in stock. Every rug ships with a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a large diamond medallion drawn in cornflower blue and outlined in ivory, filled with olive serrated leaf arms radiating from a small central rosette. Around it runs a wide navy-black frame carrying 4 olive hexagonal cartouches, one at each shoulder of the medallion, and 2 anchor shaped pendants that point up and down the length of the rug. The brick field between medallion and corners is packed with hooked vines, angular blossoms, small birdlike leaf forms and scattered rosettes, all rendered in the straight line, stepped outline vocabulary that makes this one of the most recognizable geometric Persian rugs. The ivory spandrels repeat the same leafwork in miniature, and the main navy border alternates palmettes and star rosettes between narrow olive guard stripes.

Color Palette

Brick is the anchor, a warm terracotta red with gentle abrash that lightens and deepens in bands across the open field, the sign of small dye lots used by hand. Against it the medallion frame reads almost black, a very dark navy that throws the pale cornflower blue of the medallion center forward. Ivory does the heavy lifting in the 4 corners and in every outline, drawing crisp white zigzag edges around the medallion and the cornerpieces so the geometry stays legible from across a room. Olive and old gold appear in the cartouches, the leaf arms and the guard stripes, and there are quieter accents of rose pink, aubergine and soft sky blue tucked into the smaller field flowers. The overall effect is warm and mid-toned rather than bright, so it works over dark wood as easily as over pale oak or stone.

Origin and Weave

Heriz rugs come from a cluster of villages east of Tabriz in northwest Persia, on the slopes below Mount Sabalan. The local water is mineral rich, the sheep graze high pasture, and the resulting wool is famously tough and lanolin heavy, which is why these rugs survive generations of real traffic instead of being retired to a study. Weavers there work from memory rather than a full cartoon, which is why the medallion here is drawn in straight segments and stepped angles instead of the curved vine of a city workshop, and why no 2 quarters of the field are identical. The knotting is a sturdy village weave on a cotton warp and weft, beaten down firmly so the back reads clear and the pile stands upright, as the ruler shot on the reverse shows.