6'6" x 9'2" Persian Heriz Rug | Geometric Medallion | Circa 1980s Wool Pile

This 6'6" x 9'2" Heriz was woven in the village belt of northwest Persia in the 1980s, and it has the blunt confidence that makes the type so easy to live with: a deep brick red field, a near black navy border, and a single large stepped medallion drawn in straight lines and right angles rather than curves. The pile is thick hand-knotted wool on a cotton foundation, heavy enough to lie flat without slipping and dense enough that the pattern still reads crisply after 40 years. It covers roughly the same footprint as a 6x9 area rug with a little extra length, which suits a sofa and 2 chairs or a 6 seat dining table. It ships with a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a stepped medallion with a camel gold and olive core, outlined by a ring of ivory hooked vine tips that read almost like a wreath at close range. Inside it sits a small 8 petal rosette on a red ground. Above and below, 2 navy pendants extend from a cruciform navy frame that pushes out into the field in 4 directions, a signature Heriz arrangement. The open red ground between medallion and border is filled with serrated leaves, hooked vine scrolls and angular palmettes, with large gold and navy leaf clusters at the head and foot. The 4 corner spandrels repeat the navy ground and carry their own leaf and blossom fill. The main border runs palmettes and rosettes on midnight navy, framed by narrow reciprocal guard stripes in red and ivory. For buyers drawn to this drawing style, it belongs squarely with geometric Persian rugs.

Color and Palette

The field is a warm brick red that shifts slightly toward tomato across the width, the gentle tonal movement you expect from small hand-dyed wool batches. Against it, the border and spandrels sit in a navy so dark it reads black from standing height and only shows its blue in the close-up photographs. The medallion brings the warmest notes: camel gold, olive brown and bottle green, ringed in soft ivory. Scattered through the field are salmon pink hooked vines, rust orange leaf tips, sage green sprays and small touches of slate blue and teal, with ivory used sparingly to outline and separate. The fringe and selvedge are natural ivory, and the back photograph shows the same clean red, navy, gold and cream sequence carried straight through the knots. Overall it is a saturated, warm red rug that holds its own against white walls and pale upholstery, as the room view shows.

Heriz Origin and Weaving Quality

Heriz is a group of villages east of Tabriz, on the slopes below Mount Sabalan, and the local wool is the reason the name carries weight. Mineral-rich water and hard mountain pasture produce a tough, high-lanolin fleece that resists crushing, which is why Heriz rugs from the middle of the last century are still in daily service today. Weavers here work from memory and small village drawings rather than a full cartoon, so the medallion is squared off and each corner is slightly its own, which is exactly the charm of the type. Knot counts in village Heriz work generally stay under 200 knots per square inch by design, since the heavy wool and thick pile matter more than fineness. The weave, the wool quality and the palette all place this piece in the 1980s, and if you want to understand how those judgments are made, read our guide on how to date an oriental rug.