7'9" x 10' Persian Heriz Rug | Geometric Stepped Medallion | Antique Village Weave

This is the Heriz that collectors keep buying: a terracotta red field, a navy stepped medallion pinned dead center, and ivory corner spandrels that lift the whole rug off the floor. The wool has the dry lustre that only comes with age, and the pile reads evenly across all 4 corners with no thin patches in the photographs. At 7'9" x 10" of floor coverage this piece sits in the most useful room size there is, which is why 8x10 Persian rugs in this drawing rarely stay available long. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming it is hand-knotted and Persian in origin.

Design and Motifs

The center is an 8 point star medallion outlined in navy and ivory, with a small rosette at its heart ringed in light blue and camel. Serrated leaves, hooked palmettes and blocky vine work fill the field around it, drawn in the straight line, right angle vocabulary that separates the Heriz village weavers from the curvilinear city workshops. Ivory spandrels cut across all 4 corners and carry their own miniature vine scrolls. The main border runs a navy ground with camel palmettes alternating against rose and turquoise blossoms, framed by narrow light blue guard stripes with a running flower meander. Buyers who want this kind of angular drawing across a room usually end up comparing geometric Persian rugs side by side, and this one is a textbook example of the type.

Color: Terracotta Red, Navy and Ivory

The field is a warm terracotta red that shifts between brick and soft salmon as the light moves across the pile, natural abrash from hand dyed, hand spun wool rather than any fault. Against it, the medallion outline and the main border read a deep inky navy that photographs almost black in the close-up shots. Ivory is the third voice, used in the spandrels, the medallion tracery and the small guard stripes, and it is what keeps the red from going heavy. Inside those three the weavers scattered camel gold, sage and pistachio green, a clear mid turquoise, dusty rose and touches of chocolate brown. The palette is mellow rather than loud, which is why it settles easily onto oak, walnut and painted floors.

Heriz: The Weaving Villages East of Tabriz

Heriz is a cluster of villages east of Tabriz on the slopes below Mount Sabalan, in the northwest of Persia. The water there runs mineral rich, and local belief has always been that it is what gives Heriz wool its hard, glassy resilience. Weavers work from memory on cotton warps, beating the wool down firmly, which produces a rug built for generations of traffic rather than for display. Knot counts in village work usually sit under 200 per square inch, and the design is scaled accordingly: bold, angular and legible from across the room. The even wear, the depth of the dyes and the drawing of the border here all point to an older piece, and if you want to understand the evidence yourself, our guide on how to date an oriental rug walks through what to look for.