7'10" x 10'7" Persian Heriz Rug | Maroon Geometric Medallion | Semi-Antique Village Weave

This is a semi-antique Heriz in the classic village manner: a deep maroon field, a broad ivory medallion drawn in straight lines and steps, and a dark border that frames the whole piece without softening it. Hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation, it has the weight and the low, even pile you want in a rug that has already been walked on for decades and has plenty of life left. At 7'10" x 10'7" it fills a standard seating group without crowding it, and the surface has aged into the slightly uneven, hand-dyed depth that no machine ever reproduces. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming its origin, materials and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

The centre is an 8 sided ivory medallion built around a small stepped cross, ringed by serrated leaves and blunt little rosettes, with a maroon pendant hanging off each end. Around it the weaver has laid a second, larger star outline in brick red, and beyond that the field fills with hooked vines, angular palmettes and tiny stylised birds and animal forms that appear across the corners once you look closely. Two large ivory spandrels anchor the top and bottom corners and repeat the same serrated vocabulary at bigger scale. The main border runs a row of diamonds and rosettes on a near black ground, with narrow flowering guard stripes either side. This is drawing done from memory rather than a cartoon, which is exactly what collectors look for in geometric Persian rugs of this period: no two quarters are perfectly identical, and the small asymmetries are the signature of a single pair of hands.

Maroon, Ivory and Ink Blue

The field reads as a saturated maroon that shifts toward rose red where the light catches the pile and toward oxblood where it does not, a natural abrash that gives the surface movement across 10'7" of length. The medallion and the corner spandrels are a warm undyed ivory, clean enough to carry the drawing and slightly creamed with age. The borders drop to a near black ink blue that makes the whole rug sit down visually, and inside them you find sparks of soft rose, pale blue grey and a nutty walnut brown that also outlines much of the field ornament. Small touches of green and terracotta appear in the guard stripes. It is a genuinely dark, warm rug, and it works best against oak, walnut or pale plaster walls where the maroon can glow rather than compete. If your scheme is built around red and burgundy rugs, this one is the traditional anchor for it.

Heriz: Weaving East of Tabriz

Heriz is a cluster of villages in northwest Persia, east of Tabriz on the slopes below Mount Sabalan. The wool from those flocks is famously tough and the local water is mineral rich, which is the practical reason Heriz rugs wear the way they do: the pile resists crushing and the dyes hold their depth for generations. Weavers here work on a village loom rather than a city workshop cartoon, so the line stays angular, the corners step rather than curve, and the knot count sits below the 200 mark that fine urban pieces chase. That is not a shortcoming, it is the point. Age is read from handle, the back and the way the colours have settled, and if you want to understand the method, our guide on how to date an oriental rug explains what we look at. For buyers shopping 8x11 Persian rugs, a semi-antique Heriz in this condition is one of the few pieces that is genuinely built for a busy room.