8'3" x 11'9" Persian Heriz Rug | Unusual Geometric Star Medallion | Excellent Condition

This is a village piece that does something most Heriz rugs do not. Instead of the usual heavy stepped medallion floating alone on an open field, the weaver filled an 8 point star with a second, smaller drawing inside it, so the center reads as a rug within a rug. The wool pile stands 3/8" over a cotton foundation, the handle is firm and heavy the way good northwest Persian work should be, and at 8'3" x 11'9" it covers a full seating group without crowding the walls. It is one of the more useful proportions among large Persian area rugs. Condition is excellent, the pile is even end to end, and every rug we ship carries our certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The center is an 8 point star medallion outlined in indigo, with serrated hooks running down every edge and a slim ivory line tracing the whole shape so it lifts off the field. Inside sits a second geometric frame in brick and rose, drawn with straight ivory bars and small 8 petal rosettes at the intersections, closing on a dark blue floral burst around a tiny latch-hook square at the exact center. Anchor pendants in navy climb out of the top and bottom points toward the ends of the field, each one finished with a cypress-like finial. The 4 corners carry large ivory spandrels filled with angular vine, curled leaves and blossoms, the sort of straight-line floral drawing that separates geometric Persian rugs from curvilinear city work. The main border runs a navy ground with alternating rosettes and serrated palmettes, framed by narrow blue guard stripes and a plain blue outer selvage.

Color: Dull Red Field, Indigo Medallion, Ivory Corners

The open field is a dull red with a soft, dusty cast rather than a hot tomato tone, and it shows the gentle horizontal banding of natural abrash where dye lots met on the loom. Against it the medallion and the main border are a near black indigo that carries just enough blue to read as navy where the light hits the pile. The 4 ivory spandrels are the brightest note in the rug, a warm cream rather than a bleached white, and they set up the contrast that makes the star read so cleanly. Secondary tones do the detail work: mid blue in the rosettes and the central burst, sage and olive green in the leaf tips, rose pink in the small blossoms, camel and tan in the vine stems, with fine white outlines separating every element. The overall palette is red, blue and ivory, a combination that sits comfortably on oak, walnut and stone floors alike.

Heriz: Village Weaving East of Tabriz

Heriz is a group of villages in northwest Persia, east of Tabriz on the slopes below Mount Sabalan. The mineral-rich water there is credited with the toughness of the local fleece, which is why these rugs wear for generations under real traffic instead of thinning out in the walkways. Weavers there work from memory and from village drawings rather than a painted cartoon, so the lines stay angular, the corners step rather than curve, and no two pieces resolve their medallions in exactly the same way. This one is a good example of that freedom, with a doubled center that a Tabriz workshop would never have drawn. The knot count sits in the normal village range, which is what gives the rug its thick handle and weight, and the cotton warp and weft keep it flat and square. Hand-knotted wool over cotton, woven for use, and still excellent after a life of careful ownership.