11'6" x 15'3" Persian Heriz Rug | Rust Field, Navy Star Medallion, Sky Blue Border | 1980s Oversize

This is a big, confident village piece from the Heriz district, woven in the 1980s and measuring 11'6" x 15'3". The field is a deep rust red, the medallion an inky navy star, and the surrounding border band an unusually clear sky blue that most Heriz weavings never attempt. Wool pile on a cotton foundation, hand-knotted throughout, with a heavy handle and a dense, even back that you can read knot by knot in the fold photos. It is a floor covering built for a room that defeats normal rugs: a 15 foot dining table, a great room, a wide open living space where anything smaller would look stranded. If you are shopping oversize Persian rugs, note that pieces this large in this condition are not restocked on demand. Every rug ships with a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The drawing is classic Heriz but drawn with more curve and more incident than the district usually allows. At the center sits an elongated navy hexagonal medallion filled with cream and salmon serrated leaves radiating from an 8 petal rosette set inside a small ivory cartouche, with 4 pendant palmettes reaching out top and bottom. Around it the rust field carries thick olive green vines, hooked cloud bands, blue and coral cartouches and scattered ivory blossoms, all resolving into stepped, angular outlines rather than smooth arcs. The corner spandrels are worked in sky blue with their own olive vine scroll and a large salmon medallion at each of the 4 corners. The main border runs ivory, filled with alternating red rosettes and teal serrated leaves, flanked by a reciprocal zigzag guard and a small vine minor border. It reads as a true geometric Persian rug from across the room and as a floral one up close.

The Color Story: Rust, Sky Blue and Olive Green

The field red is a warm brick rust that shifts slightly with the light, deeper toward the medallion and a touch brighter along the sides, the natural abrash of hand-dyed wool rather than any flaw. Against it the medallion reads almost black-navy, which is what gives the center its punch. The sky blue of the spandrels and the wide inner band is the surprise: it is light, clean and open, closer to a summer blue than the usual indigo, and it lifts the whole rug. Olive and pistachio green outline nearly every leaf and vine, a soft yellow-green that keeps the red from turning heavy. Salmon and coral pink fill the smaller cartouches and leaf tips, ivory and cream carry the outer border and the scattered blossoms, and small hits of true cobalt appear inside the rosette centers. The overall effect is warm and lively, a red rug that photographs and lives far lighter than most red rugs do.

Heriz Weaving East of Tabriz

Heriz is a cluster of weaving villages east of Tabriz, on the slopes below Mount Sabalan in northwest Persia. The water there runs high in minerals, which is the traditional explanation for the famously tough, springy local wool, and that wool is why Heriz rugs survive generations of heavy traffic when finer city weavings would have thinned out. The looms are village looms, the drawing is angular and straight-lined with stepped corners, and the knot count is deliberately moderate so the pile can stay thick and the structure heavy. This example shows that build clearly: firm, squared-off handle, dark brown wool selvage, ivory cotton warps and a back that lies flat and even across nearly 15 feet. For collectors trying to place a piece like this in time, our guide on how to date an Oriental rug walks through the structural clues that point to a 1980s Heriz weaving.