10'2" x 13'5" Persian Heriz Rug | Antique Brick Field, Navy Medallion | Excellent Condition

This is a full room-size Persian Heriz, hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation and finished with a dense 3/8" pile that still stands even from end to end. The drawing is pure Heriz: one large stepped medallion anchored dead center, deep navy-black cornerpieces pulling the eye out to the four corners, and an antique brick field that has softened into the warm terracotta tone collectors pay for. At 10'2" x 13'5" it sits comfortably in the class of 10x13 Persian rugs that will float a large seating group or cover a formal dining table with chairs pulled out. Every rug we ship carries a certificate of authenticity confirming it is hand-knotted, wool pile, and woven in Persia.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a stepped, eight-sided medallion outlined in navy-black and ivory, with a small rayed rosette at its core and two ivory pendant lamps hanging from the top and bottom points. Four flanking cartouches inside the medallion frame are filled with hooked leaves, tiny stars and blocky vine ends, each one drawn slightly differently by hand. Around the medallion the field carries angular palmettes, serrated leaves and pinwheel rosettes, all built on straight lines and 45 degree turns rather than the curved vine of a city workshop. The ivory spandrels at the 4 corners are the classic Heriz anchor palmette, packed with scrolling hooks and small blossoms that read almost like a separate rug in negative. The main border alternates navy-black panels of stacked zigzag bands with paler ground cartouches holding 8 petal rosettes, framed on both sides by narrow reciprocal guard stripes. It is a textbook example of what buyers look for in geometric Persian rugs: bold structure at a distance, fine incident up close.

A Palette of Antique Brick, Navy Black, Olive and Ivory

The field is antique brick, a muted terracotta red that shifts between dusty rose and soft rust depending on where the light falls and which direction the pile is brushed. It is a warm, desaturated red rather than a hot one, which is why this rug sits easily with oak floors, walnut furniture and off-white walls. Against it the navy-black reads almost charcoal in the medallion outlines, the cornerpiece frames and the main border, giving the whole composition its weight and its edges. Ivory does the drawing work: it lights the spandrels, the pendant lamps, the rosette panels in the border and the fine outlines that separate one motif from the next. Scattered through the field are olive and sage greens in the serrated leaves and small blossoms, along with occasional pale blue and camel highlights that appear only when you stand over the rug. The back view shows the same brick, charcoal, ivory and camel yarns knot by knot, confirming that the color runs all the way through rather than sitting on the surface.

Heriz: Village Weaving East of Tabriz

Heriz is a cluster of villages in northwest Persia, east of Tabriz on the slopes below Mount Sabalan. The mineral-rich water in that region is credited with the famously tough, high-lanolin wool the weavers there work with, and that wool is the whole reason a Heriz behaves the way it does underfoot: springy, resilient and very hard to wear out. Weavers work from memory and from village drawings rather than a full cartoon, which is why the medallion here is not perfectly symmetrical and why the corner palmettes differ slightly from one another. That is the signature of the type, not a fault. Village Heriz weaving usually runs under 200 knots per square inch, and the knot count is not the point: the point is a heavy, honest wool rug built to take 50 years of traffic in a main room. This 10'2" x 13'5" piece is in excellent condition with a full, even pile and clean, straight sides.