8'2" x 10'10" Persian Heriz Rug | Rust Red Geometric Medallion | Excellent Condition Village Weave

This 8'2" x 10'10" Persian Heriz is the kind of rug that holds a whole room together without asking for attention. The field reads rust red under daylight, the drawing is entirely angular, and the wool has the dry, slightly glossy handle that Heriz fleece takes on once a rug has settled. The pile stands at a full 3/8", even from end to end, with no thin areas, no repairs and clean selvages, which is why the condition is graded Excellent. At just over 8 by 11 feet it sits squarely in the most useful of all 8x11 Persian rugs, large enough to carry a sofa group on the wool rather than around it. Every rug ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming it is hand-knotted and woven in Persia.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a stepped medallion built from concentric outlines, a small squared rosette at the heart, then serrated leaf blades radiating out in salmon, ivory and indigo toward 4 blunt points. Around it the weaver has thrown a dark anchor field of navy that frames the medallion and pushes it forward against the red. The corner spandrels are ivory, drawn with hooked vines, small palmettes and tiny stars, and they give the layout its light. Between medallion and spandrels the field is filled with angular blossoms, cypress-like forms, comb motifs and hooked leaves, all of them straight-lined, as is proper for geometric Persian rugs of this tradition. The navy main border runs a turtle palmette and rosette rhythm, flanked by camel guard stripes and a sky blue running wave that ties the whole frame together.

Rust Red, Indigo and Ivory

The ground color is a true rust red, warmer and earthier than a Kashan crimson, with a faint brick tone that shifts toward terracotta where the light catches the pile and deepens to oxblood in the shadow of the knot. Against it the navy is nearly black at the medallion outline and opens to a clear indigo in the border, so the two darks never flatten into one another. Ivory does the lifting: full cream in the spandrels, softened to a warm eggshell in the small field motifs. Then come the secondary voices, a pale sky blue in the leaf blades and guard wave, camel and walnut brown in the vine work, and a muted rose that sits between the red and the ivory and keeps the palette from turning hard. Close up in the photographs you can see gentle abrash, natural banding in the red, which is the signature of small-batch dye lots.

Heriz: Village Weaving East of Tabriz

Heriz is a cluster of villages in northwest Persia, east of Tabriz and below the slopes of Mount Sabalan, where mineral-rich water and high pasture produce wool with an unusual amount of spring and lanolin. Weavers there work from memory and from village cartoons rather than the fully drawn court cartoons used for Tabriz rugs to the southwest, which is exactly why the curved line becomes a straight one and the medallion steps instead of sweeping. Knot counts in village Heriz work generally sit under 200 per square inch, and the back of this piece shows that structure clearly: a firm cotton foundation, a thick well-packed knot and a heavy grip underfoot. That combination of coarse-scale drawing and tough wool is why Heriz rugs outlive the houses they are bought for, and why a clean example in this size and this condition is worth holding.