6'5" x 8'7" Persian Bijar Rug | Herati Field with Navy Hexagonal Medallion | 1980s, Excellent Condition

This is a classic Persian Bijar rug from the 1980s, hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation and still carrying a full, even 3/8" pile after 40 years. Pick up one end and you feel immediately what separates a Bijar from almost everything else: the weight. Bijar weavers beat the wefts down with a metal comb, row after row, until the rug is packed so tightly it barely folds. The result here is a dense, board-flat piece that lies perfectly true on the floor. At 6'5" x 8'7" it sits right in the most usable range of 6x9 Persian rugs, large enough to anchor a seating group yet easy to place in a normal room. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity documenting its origin, materials and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

The drawing is the Bijar interpretation of the Herati, also called mahi or fish pattern: a lattice of small diamonds, each holding a rosette flanked by 4 curved lanceolate leaves that read as fish circling a pond. It runs edge to edge across the field without a break, which is the hard version to weave, because the weaver has to keep the repeat perfectly regular through the medallion and out into the corners. At the center sits an elongated hexagonal medallion on a dark ground, outlined in ivory and finished top and bottom with a small cloud-band pendant. A large stepped hexagon frames the field itself, leaving broad spandrels that carry the same Herati lattice on an ivory ground. The main border is a dark field of palmettes and rosettes joined by a serpentine vine, with reciprocal guard stripes of small flowerheads and pointed leaves on both sides. Angular, disciplined, and drawn without a wasted motif.

A Rose Red Field Framed in Ivory and Black

The field is a soft rose red, a warm salmon-toned red rather than a hot brick, and the Herati lattice over it is picked out in cream, ink black, gold, soft brown and a muted blue-grey. That mix keeps the field lively at close range while reading as a single calm tone from across the room. The spandrels shift to a clean cream ivory, so the stepped outline of the medallion field is instantly legible, and the flowerheads scattered there pull in rust, moss green, gold and small touches of pink. The medallion itself is the darkest note in the rug, a near-black navy ground that makes the ivory-outlined rosettes inside it glow. The main border repeats that dark ground and adds crisp sage and emerald green leaves, so the green that appears only in small doses across the field gets a proper frame. A thin terracotta stripe separates border from field, and the ends finish in natural ivory fringe.

Bijar, the Iron Rug of Persia

Bijar lies in the Kurdish highlands of western Persia, and the town gave its name to the densest weave in the country. The wool from those hills is tough and high in lanolin, the warps are set under heavy tension, and the wet weft is driven home with a weighted metal comb, which is why collectors have called Bijar the iron rug of Persia for well over a century. A rug built this way does not ripple, does not crush underfoot and tolerates decades of traffic that would flatten a lighter village weave. Weaving in the surrounding districts differs in handle and palette, which is worth understanding before you buy: our guide to Bijar, Bijar Zanjan, Bijar Tekab and Bijar Bukan sets out the differences. This example belongs to the fine end of the group, with a tight knot count, sharp small-scale Herati drawing and the compact handle that only comes from true Bijar construction.