8'2" x 11'4" Persian Heriz Rug | Red Field, Ivory Spandrels | Village Geometric Medallion

This is a hand-knotted Persian Heriz measuring 8'2" x 11'4", woven on a cotton foundation with a 3/8" wool pile and in excellent condition throughout. It is the Heriz that most buyers picture: a deep red field, a large stepped medallion anchored in the center, ivory corner spandrels that throw the whole drawing into relief, and a dark indigo main border carrying palmettes and rosettes. The wool has the weight and slight sheen that this district is known for, and the drawing is confident rather than fussy, done from village memory instead of a paper cartoon. It is one of the most usable proportions we sell, sitting squarely in the run of 8x11 Persian rugs that fit a standard seating group without crowding the walls. Every rug ships with a certificate of authenticity documenting origin, materials and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a stepped, many-lobed medallion with a small hooked star at its heart, flanked by two navy pendants that run out along the length of the rug. Every line in the composition is drawn in straight segments and right angles, the hallmark of village weaving in this district and the reason Heriz sits so comfortably alongside other geometric Persian rugs. Large ivory spandrels fill all 4 corners, packed with serrated leaves, hooked vine tips and small angular blossoms that break up the mass of red. Between the medallion and the spandrels the field carries scattered palmettes, tiny star rosettes and stepped leaf forms, none of them repeated exactly, which is what gives the surface its movement. The main border runs a sequence of turtle palmettes and 8 petal rosettes on indigo, framed inside and out by narrow guard stripes of small floral meander, and the finish at both ends is a plain kilim with the warp fringe left natural.

A Study in Madder Red and Ivory

The field reads as a warm brick red with a madder depth to it, varying subtly across the width the way hand-dyed wool always does, so the color moves under light instead of sitting flat. Against it the ivory spandrels and outlines are close to an undyed cream, bright enough to draw the eye straight to the corners and the medallion outline. The main border is a deep indigo that goes almost black in the shadowed photographs, and within both field and border there are secondary notes of denim blue, rust, terracotta, soft gold and touches of dark brown in the smaller leaf and rosette fills. Those blue accents are the quiet part of the palette and the reason this rug settles next to cool grays and navies as easily as it does next to warm woods and leather. The overall impression is red and ivory, with just enough supporting color to keep it from feeling monotone.

Heriz: Weaving Below Mount Sabalan

Heriz is a cluster of villages east of Tabriz in northwest Persia, spread across the slopes below Mount Sabalan. The wool from the flocks there is famously tough and high in natural lanolin, and the mineral-rich water used in washing and dyeing is credited with the particular clarity these reds and blues hold over decades. Weavers work from memory on a sturdy cotton foundation, which is why the drawing stays angular and the knot count typically sits under 200 per square inch: the point of a Heriz was never fineness, it was a rug that could take a hundred years of traffic in a farmhouse and still look like this one does. That combination of dense wool, thick pile and honest village drawing is exactly why Heriz became the Persian rug American collectors bought first and kept longest.