10' x 13'5" Persian Heriz Rug | Brick Red Geometric Medallion | 1970s Sherabian Village Weave

This 10' x 13'5" Persian Heriz rug was hand-knotted in the 1970s in the village belt northeast of Tabriz, in the drawing style the Heriz district has used for well over a century. The field is a deep brick red, the medallion a dark indigo with an ivory star at its center, and the corners are drawn in soft ivory so the eye reads the medallion first. The wool is the heavy, lustrous fleece that Heriz is known for, the pile is full and even across all 4 corners, and the rug lies flat and straight. It is a true room size piece, one of the most usable proportions we carry among 10x13 Persian rugs, and it ships with a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The layout is the classic Heriz formula drawn with unusual care for a village piece. A large angular medallion sits dead center, stepped and lobed rather than curved, with an ivory cartouche at its heart holding an 8 petal rosette in rose, sage and wine. Long pendants run off the top and bottom of the medallion, each one filled with serrated leaves and small palmettes. The field around it carries angular vinework, hooked leaf forms, square rosettes and paired blossoms, all drawn with straight lines and clean turns, which is the hallmark of geometric Persian rugs from this district. The ivory corner spandrels repeat the vine in reverse, and the main border runs a turtle palmette and rosette repeat on indigo, framed by narrow reciprocal guard stripes.

The Color Palette: Brick Red, Indigo and Ivory

The field is a warm brick red that shifts toward terracotta where the light catches the pile and deepens to a true madder red in the close-ups. Against it the medallion reads almost black at a distance and resolves into deep indigo blue once you are close, the same indigo used for the main border. Ivory does the structural work: the corner spandrels, the medallion center and the small square blossoms scattered through the field all pull in clean cream and soft white. The supporting colors are what make the rug sing, with salmon pink in the leaves and palmettes, a lighter sky blue in the vine tips, sage green through the stems and small touches of dark aubergine in the rosette centers. It is a red and navy rug at ten feet away and a 10 color rug at arm's length.

Heriz Weaving East of Tabriz

Heriz is a group of villages east of Tabriz, on the slopes below Mount Sabalan in northwest Persia. The water there is mineral rich, and the local sheep grow a wool so tough and springy that Heriz rugs are among the longest wearing floor coverings ever made. Weavers in these villages work from memory and from village drawings rather than a full cartoon, which is why the line stays angular: straight runs, stepped corners, no curved arabesque. Village Heriz weaving usually sits below 200 knots per square inch, so the value is carried by the wool, the dye quality and the confidence of the drawing rather than by fineness, and this 1970s piece is a strong example on all three counts. Its size makes it a one rug solution for a large room, with the medallion centered under a table or a seating group.