5'3" x 6'3" Antique Persian Tribal Rug | Heriz Geometric Medallion | Squarish Format

This is an old piece with real village character, hand-knotted in wool on a wool foundation and measuring 5'3" x 6'3", which is close enough to square that it sits well in rooms where a long rectangle would look wrong. The pile has been walked down to about 3/8", so the drawing reads sharply and every knot is visible from above, and the ivory outlines that separate the medallion from the field still stand out crisply against the indigo ground. Antique weaves like this one appeal to buyers who want an antique Persian tribal rug with honest age rather than a new rug made to look old. Every rug we ship carries a certificate of authenticity confirming that it is hand-knotted, its origin, materials and measurements.

Design and Motifs

The layout is a classic tribal reading of the geometric medallion plan: a large stepped, elongated diamond fills the center of the field, drawn entirely in straight lines and hooks, with a tall pole running out of each end toward the corners. Inside the medallion sit 3 stacked diamond cartouches packed with tiny rosettes, combs and stylized flower heads, each one outlined in ivory so the shapes separate cleanly from the dark ground. The spandrels and the open field around the medallion are covered edge to edge with small tribal figures: 8 petal rosettes, hooked diamonds, comb devices, birds and little quadruped animal forms scattered in the weaver's own order rather than a repeated grid. A wide ivory main border of hooked and serrated devices runs around all 4 sides, framed by narrow guard stripes of reciprocal triangles, and the red and navy barber-pole selvedge visible in the close-up photos is original.

The Multi-Color Palette: Indigo, Rust and Ivory

Color is where this rug earns its keep. The medallion ground is a deep indigo navy that shifts between a lighter mid-blue and near black as the light moves across the pile, the natural abrash of hand-spun, hand-dyed yarn. The field around it is a warm walnut brown shot through with rust and terracotta, and the two zones are separated by thin ivory and brick red outlines that keep the drawing legible. Inside the motifs the weaver used coral red, soft teal, camel and a clear saffron gold, and the gold in particular flickers across the brown ground like small points of light. The ivory border reads as a creamy undyed wool rather than a bleached white, and the guard stripes add navy, red and green against it. Overall the palette is soft and settled rather than bright, the kind of multi-color antique tone that sits comfortably on wood floors and with older leather and walnut furniture.

Persian Village Weaving and the Heriz Geometric Tradition

Geometric drawing of this kind is the backbone of Persian village and tribal weaving. Heriz, the group of villages east of Tabriz below Mount Sabalan, gave the format its best known expression: angular lines, stepped corners, a bold central medallion and famously tough wool drawn from flocks grazing mineral-rich pasture. Village looms work from memory and from small drawn guides rather than a full cartoon, which is why the 2 halves of this field are close but never identical and why the medallion sits a fraction off center. That is the signature of a genuine hand-knotted piece, not a flaw. The wool here is glossy and dense, the knotting is even, and the rug has clearly spent decades on a floor without losing its structure, which is exactly the durability this tradition is known for. If you want to understand how weavers, collectors and dealers read age in a piece like this, our guide on how to date an antique Oriental rug walks through the same clues we used on it.