7'7" x 11'3" Persian Heriz Rug | Geometric Stepped Medallion | Deep Red Wool Pile, Excellent Condition

This is a classic village Heriz in the size most American rooms actually want, a true 7'7" x 11'3" that covers a seating group without crowding the walls. The wool is thick and springy under the hand, the 3/8" pile stands evenly across the whole field, and the cotton foundation gives the rug the flat, heavy lie that makes a Heriz sit still on a hard floor. Buyers hunting 8x11 Persian rugs usually end up comparing thin machine-made copies against a piece like this one, and the difference shows within a minute of standing on it. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming the origin, the hand-knotted construction and the materials.

Design and Motifs

The drawing is pure Heriz: a stepped cross medallion anchored in the center, outlined in ivory, with a rosette core of 8 small palmettes ringed by curling tendrils. Long anchor-shaped pendants reach north and south toward the ends of the field, each filled with a dark navy ground and a small flowering spray. The 4 corners carry ivory spandrels with serrated leaves and crisp hooked vines, and the open red field between them is filled with angular leaf forms, curled cloud bands and scattered blossoms rather than a repeating lattice. The main border runs navy with alternating turtle palmettes and round rosettes, framed on both sides by narrow reciprocal guard stripes in white and red. This is the angular, straight-line school of Persian drawing, the same family as other geometric Persian rugs, where every curve is resolved into a decisive step or a hook.

A Deep Red Field With Navy, Ivory and Green Accents

The field is a deep tomato red that reads warmer near the center and slightly cooler toward the ends, the natural result of hand-dyed wool worked in batches. Against it the medallion and the main border sit in a near-black navy, which is what gives the rug its strong graphic contrast from across the room. Ivory does the outlining work throughout, tracing the medallion, the pendants and the corner spandrels so the geometry stays legible. Inside those shapes the palette opens up: soft light blue, sage and pine green, dusty rose, tan and a clear gold-ochre that lights up the two pendant cartouches and a handful of the field leaves. Beige and white specks in the guard stripes keep the borders from going heavy. It is a red rug first, but it is a red rug with 7 or 8 supporting colors doing quiet work, which is why it sits comfortably with wood tones, leather and both warm and cool wall paint.

Heriz Weaving: The Villages East of Tabriz

Heriz is a cluster of villages east of Tabriz, on the slopes below Mount Sabalan, and its reputation rests on two things: the mineral-rich water the flocks drink, which produces unusually tough and lustrous wool, and a village drawing tradition that works from memory rather than a full cartoon. Weavers there build the medallion out of steps and straight lines because that is how the design is held and passed down, and the result is a rug that photographs as bold and wears like iron. Village Heriz weaving normally sits under 200 knots per square inch, and that is by design: a slightly coarser knot on a heavy cotton foundation, with a full 3/8" wool pile above it, is what lets these rugs survive generations of traffic. The back of this piece, shown against a ruler in the last photograph, is even and tight, with straight rows and no bulges or waves, which is the mark of a properly tensioned loom and a weaver who kept her count.