7'10" x 11'3" Persian Heriz Rug | Rust Red Geometric Medallion | Ivory Spandrels

This is a full room size Persian Heriz, hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation and finished with a plain ivory fringe at both ends. At 7'10" x 11'3" it sits squarely in the most useful of all 8x11 Persian rugs, large enough to carry a seating group with the front legs of the furniture on the wool and still show a margin of floor. The pile is even from end to end with no low spots, the selvages are intact and the wool still has the dry, slightly glassy handle that the villages east of Tabriz are known for. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity that records the origin, materials, knotting and measurements of this exact piece.

Design and Motifs

The drawing is the classic Heriz formula, executed entirely in straight lines and angles. A navy stepped medallion sits dead center, filled with a small rosette and a ring of hooked scrolls, and finishes at top and bottom in long pendant spearheads. Around it the field carries huge serrated leaves, angular palmettes and hooked vine ends, all drawn on the diagonal so the eye reads a single connected pattern rather than a scatter of separate motifs. The 4 corners are filled with ivory spandrels stepped in to echo the medallion, each packed with blue hooked scrolls, small boxed flowers and a pale vine that keeps the corners bright against the darker field. The main border runs a chain of navy ground palmettes and pink rosettes joined by ivory and olive vine, flanked by narrow guard stripes of running flowerheads. It is a bold, architectural piece of drawing, and if you like this vocabulary you will find more of it among our geometric Persian rugs.

Color Palette

The field is rust red, a warm brick tone that lifts toward terracotta where the light catches the pile and settles into a deeper madder red in the shadows. Against it the medallion, the leaf outlines and the main border ground are a very dark indigo navy that reads almost black at a distance and only shows its blue up close. The ivory is the third structural color, used for the 4 corner spandrels, the vine of the border and the fine outlines that separate one motif from the next, and it is what keeps such a densely drawn rug legible. Secondary notes are read from the photographs and include salmon pink in the border rosettes and the spearhead fillers, a soft medium blue in the small boxed flowers, olive green in the leaf tips and the guard stripes, and touches of gold and pale apricot scattered through the field. The overall effect is warm and traditional, and the rust and navy combination is forgiving of both dark hardwood and pale stone floors.

Heriz Origin and Weaving Quality

Heriz is a group of villages east of Tabriz in northwest Persia, sitting below Mount Sabalan. The water there is mineral rich, which is widely credited with the exceptional toughness of the local wool, and the fleece is high in lanolin so the pile resists soil and holds color for generations. Because the weavers work from memory and from small scale drawings rather than a fully painted cartoon, the design has to be resolved in straight lines and steps, which is exactly why Heriz drawing looks the way it does. The knotting here is firm and regular, the back shows clean rows and a tight, well beaten weft, and the wool has been clipped to a medium pile that shows the pattern crisply without losing body. Village Heriz weaving usually runs under 200 knots per square inch, and that is by design: a heavier knot on a stout cotton foundation is what makes these among the longest wearing Persian rugs you can put in a working room.