2'8" x 21'8" Persian Hamedan Runner Rug | All-Over Herati Lattice | Red & Black Wool

At 2'8" x 21'8" this is a genuinely rare length, a single hand-knotted piece that carries an entire corridor from one end to the other with no seam, no join and no break in the repeat. It was woven in the Hamedan district of western Persia on a cotton foundation with a 3/8" wool pile, tight enough to hold the small lattice drawing cleanly and heavy enough to lie flat under daily traffic. The weave is fine for village work, the wool has the dry mountain luster Hamedan is known for, and the pile shows no wear anywhere along the 260 inches. Runners of this length rarely survive in this condition because they are almost always cut down to fit a shorter hall. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming origin, materials and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

There is no medallion here, and that is the point. The field carries one continuous all-over lattice, a Herati-derived grid of interlocking diamonds outlined in black, each cell holding a small rosette, a stepped square or a pair of curled leaf hooks. Between the diamonds sit tiny 8 petal rosettes, star flowers and blocky bracket forms that repeat the full 21'8" without the drawing ever losing its rhythm. Because the pattern is directionless it reads correctly walking either way down a hall, which is exactly what a runner of this length needs. The main border is an ivory band of alternating X figures and small round flowerheads, framed by narrow black and green zigzag guard stripes and a plain red outer edge. Both ends finish in hand-knotted cotton fringe, and the selvedges are overcast in dark wool.

A Deep Red Field Anchored in Black

The ground is a warm tomato red, dense and even across the whole length, with the natural abrash of village dyeing showing as faint tonal shifts rather than stripes. Over it the lattice is drawn in a near black charcoal that in raking light reads as very dark navy, and that black skeleton is what gives the rug its graphic strength from across a room. The small motifs inside the grid bring in the secondary palette: ivory, sky blue, forest green, soft rose, apricot and a little walnut brown, each one no bigger than a fingertip so the overall impression stays red and black while the detail rewards a closer look. The ivory main border is the one long stretch of light in the piece, and its colored X figures pick up every accent used in the field, which ties the whole 21'8" together.

Hamedan Weaving in Western Persia

Hamedan sits in the Zagros foothills of western Persia and is the collecting point for hundreds of surrounding villages, which together make it the largest weaving district in the country. The village looms there are narrow and long, which is why the region has produced Persian runners for well over a century while city workshops concentrated on room sizes. Hamedan wool is coarse-fibered, high in lanolin and famously hard-wearing, and the single-weft village technique packs the knots tightly against a cotton warp so the rug keeps its shape under constant foot traffic. That combination is the reason a piece like this is the practical choice for a long hallway runner rug rather than a decorative one, and the reason a 21'8" Hamedan still looks unworn after years on the floor.