7'5" x 10'10" Persian Heriz Rug | Rose Red Geometric Medallion with Ivory Spandrels

This is a hand-knotted Heriz from northwest Persia, woven on a cotton foundation with a 3/8" wool pile and measuring 7'5" x 10'10". The field is a deep rose red carrying a large angular medallion, the 4 corners are drawn in ivory, and the wide main border is a dark coffee brown. It sits in the sweet spot for a 12 by 14 or 13 by 15 room, which is why pieces in the 8x11 Persian rugs group move quickly. The pile is even from end to end, both ends and sides are original, and the handle is the firm, meaty feel that Heriz wool is known for. Every rug we ship leaves Freeport with a certificate of authenticity stating origin, materials, knotting and measurements.

Design and Motifs

The layout is the classic Heriz formula drawn entirely in straight lines. A broad stepped medallion fills the center of the field, its core built from a stacked ivory and brown cartouche with a small latch-hooked rosette at the very middle, then framed by 2 flanking hexagonal pendants in near-black that read almost like anchors above and below the center. Around the medallion the red ground is packed with angular palmettes, serrated leaves, hooked vines and tiny stepped rosettes, all squared off to the grid of the weave rather than curved. The 4 ivory spandrels repeat the same vocabulary at larger scale, with big scrolling hooked vines, 8 petal rosettes and small animal-like figures tucked into the open ivory ground. The main border runs a procession of hooked diamonds and tall barbed palmettes separated by paired floral tabs, set between narrow guard stripes of running rosettes. Buyers who favor straight-line drawing over florals will find this one of the more legible geometric Persian rugs in this size.

A Rose Red Field Framed in Ivory and Brown

Color is what carries this rug. The field is a rose red with real depth to it, a madder-leaning tone that shifts between a cooler raspberry and a warmer brick depending on where the light falls, and it holds plenty of life in the wool rather than looking flat. Against it the ivory corners function as the breathing space, a soft cream close to undyed wool that pushes the red forward and makes the medallion sit up. The main border is a dark coffee brown that goes nearly black in the shadows, so the rug is firmly closed on all 4 sides. Inside the drawing the secondary palette does the fine work: a clear sky blue outlines leaves and fills small rosettes, a mid camel and a warm cocoa shade the palmettes, and there are small notes of ink navy, pale rose and a touch of green in the tiniest motifs. The result reads as a classic red and ivory rug from across the room and as a many-colored one up close, which is why it suits both traditional and transitional interiors looking for red and burgundy Persian rugs.

Woven in the Heriz Villages of Northwest Persia

Heriz is a cluster of weaving villages east of Tabriz, on the slopes below Mount Sabalan, and its reputation has always rested on 2 things: wool and water. The sheep in those highlands grow a coarse, high-lanolin fleece that wears like rope, and the mineral-rich local water used in washing and dyeing is credited with the particular depth and durability of Heriz reds. The weaving itself is village work on a cotton foundation, knotted from memory and village pattern rather than a court cartoon, which is exactly why the drawing is angular and the medallion is stepped instead of curved. Village Heriz rugs are generally woven under 200 knots per square inch, and nobody should expect workshop fineness here; the value is in the substance of the pile, the clarity of the geometry and the fact that these rugs routinely serve 3 generations of hard use. This example is in excellent condition with a full, even 3/8" pile, no restoration and no thin areas, and it is ready for a high-traffic room today.