7'8" x 10'10" Persian Heriz Rug | Red Field with Ivory Stepped Medallion | Excellent Condition

This is the Heriz that most people picture when they think of a Persian rug, woven at 7'8" x 10'10" in the proportions that suit a real room rather than a showroom wall. A broad ivory medallion sits on a deep madder red field, outlined in brown and navy, with a 3/8" wool pile that still stands full and even across the whole surface. The handle is heavy and dense, the back is crisp, and the knot lines in the close-up photograph run straight from selvage to selvage. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming origin, materials and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a stepped 8 point medallion drawn in hard angular lines, with a soft light blue rosette at its heart, 4 camel colored cartouches set into the navy ground around it, and long serrated finials reaching up and down the length of the rug. Around that medallion the ivory field is filled with small hooked leaves, star flowers, rosettes and tiny animal forms, each one built from straight lines because the village loom has no patience for a curve. The red field beyond carries the same angular vinery, and the 4 corners are anchored by deep spandrels in red and navy. A navy main border of palmettes and linked rosettes, flanked by two ivory and rust guard stripes, closes the composition. This is village drawing at its most confident, and it is exactly why Heriz sits at the head of Persian geometric rugs.

A Red Field Framed in Ivory and Navy

The dominant color is a warm brick red, a madder tone that reads brighter under daylight and deepens toward oxblood in the corners of the field. Against it the medallion ground is an undyed ivory that carries a faint cream cast rather than a bleached white, which is what keeps the contrast soft instead of glaring. Inside the medallion the palette narrows to indigo navy, a pale dusty blue in the central rosette, and 4 blocks of camel gold that pick up again in the guard stripes. Accents of dark brown outline the stepped edges and the spandrels, while small touches of rose, aubergine and charcoal appear in the scattered field flowers. The back photograph shows the same colors carried cleanly through to the knot, with no painting and no color run.

Heriz Weaving East of Tabriz

Heriz is a cluster of villages on the slopes east of Tabriz, below Mount Sabalan, where the mineral rich water is credited with the toughness of the local wool. That wool is the reason these rugs survive generations of traffic: the fiber is springy and high in lanolin, and it takes dye without going brittle. Weavers here work from memory on a cotton foundation, which produces the straight lines, stepped edges and bold scale seen throughout this piece. Village Heriz work typically runs under 200 knots per square inch, and the strength of the rug comes from the density of the wool and the beat-down rather than from fineness. In this room size it is a natural choice for a seating group or a long dining table, and it sits squarely in the most requested proportion we carry, our 8 x 11 Persian rugs.