7'11" x 10'9" Persian Heriz Rug | Geometric Medallion, Ivory Spandrels | Indian Red Wool, Excellent Condition

This is a classic Persian Heriz in the size most American rooms actually want, 7'11" x 10'9", which sits squarely in the practical 8x11 Persian rug range. The pile is hand-knotted wool at roughly 3/8", laid on a cotton foundation, and it has the weight and honest handle you feel immediately when you turn a corner back. The drawing is pure village Heriz: one large stepped medallion holding the center, ivory corner spandrels squaring off the field, and a dark border carrying big rosette cartouches. Condition is excellent, with even pile across the whole surface and intact selvedges and fringe, as shown in the corner and reverse photographs. Every rug we ship carries a certificate of authenticity confirming it is a genuine hand-knotted Persian piece.

Design and Motifs

The center holds an 8 petal rosette medallion built from a deep brown ground, outlined twice in light blue and pale ivory so it reads clearly from across a room. Four hooked palmettes push out from the medallion at the diagonals, each filled with small blue and ivory leaf forms, and two long lanceolate pendants run north and south to anchor the composition. Around it the field is filled with angular vine work, serrated leaves, hooked stems and small octagonal rosettes, all drawn in straight lines and right angles rather than curves, which is the signature of Heriz and other geometric Persian rugs. The ivory spandrels at the 4 corners repeat the same vocabulary at larger scale, giving the eye a bright frame against the red. The main border alternates rosette medallions and leaf clusters on a near-black ground, flanked by an olive minor stripe and a narrow reciprocal inner guard.

Color Palette in Detail

The field is the Indian red that Heriz weavers are known for, a brick to deep terracotta tone that shifts toward warm salmon in bright daylight and settles into a richer wine red in lamplight, which is why the close-up photographs look a shade lighter than the full overhead view. Against that red the ivory spandrels and ivory outlines are the brightest note, close to a warm cream rather than white. The medallion cores and border ground are a very dark brown that reads almost black at a distance, and the accents step through cobalt navy, a soft dusty light blue, muted olive, and small touches of pink and rose in the rosettes. That balance of warm red with cool blue is what makes these red and burgundy Persian rugs so easy to live with next to wood floors, leather and brass.

Heriz Origin and Weaving Quality

Heriz is a cluster of villages in northwest Persia, east of the city of Tabriz on the slopes below Mount Sabalan. The wool from those flocks is famously tough and the local water is mineral-rich, a combination that gives Heriz pile its density, its shine and its reputation for outlasting several generations of furniture. Weavers there work from memory and from village drawings rather than a fully detailed cartoon, which is why the lines stay straight and the corners step instead of curving, and why no two Heriz pieces are identical. Village weaving of this type is generally knotted below the counts you see in city workshops, so the value is in the wool, the dye quality and the confidence of the drawing rather than in fineness. On this piece the knotting is regular, the medallion is well centered, and the pile has kept its luster, which is exactly what a buyer should be looking for in a Heriz of this size.