8'4" x 11' Persian Heriz Rug | Antique Geometric Medallion | Rust Red & Navy Wool

This is an antique Persian Heriz of the kind collectors keep coming back to: a rust red field, a wide navy star medallion, ivory corner spandrels and a deep indigo main border carrying palmettes in salmon, sage and gold. The wool is heavy and glossy, the pile is even across the whole 8'4" x 11' surface, and the back photograph shows a tight, regular knot on a cotton foundation with the original ivory fringe intact. At this size it works as a full seating-area rug without crowding, which is why hand-knotted 8x11 Persian rugs in good antique condition move quickly. Every rug we ship carries our certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The drawing is classic Heriz: everything is built from straight lines and angled turns rather than curves. A deep navy 8 point star medallion sits at the center, anchored by a sage green rosette with a small ivory and black core, and it throws long stepped pendants toward each end of the field. Around it the rust ground is filled with angular palmettes, serrated leaves, cypress forms and flowering stems, each one outlined so the pattern reads clearly from across the room. The 4 corner spandrels are ivory, drawn with red vinework and blue blossoms, and they frame the medallion the way a mat frames a print. The main border alternates large rosette palmettes with curved serrated leaves on a near black indigo ground, flanked by sky blue floral guard stripes. Small drawing shifts from one end to the other, visible in the close-up photos, confirm this was woven by hand on a village loom rather than copied line for line.

A Closer Look at the Color

The field is a warm madder rust red that shifts between brick and terracotta as the light moves across the pile, a natural variation that comes from the dye pot rather than from wear. Against it the medallion and border read as a very dark navy, almost black in the corner detail, giving the design its weight. Ivory does the lifting: in the spandrels, in the small blossoms scattered across the field, and in the fringe. The secondary palette is where this rug earns its character, with soft sky blue, muted sage and olive green, mustard gold, apricot and a pale salmon pink appearing in the palmettes and leaves. Nothing is loud, and the tones sit comfortably with oak or walnut floors, aged leather, brass and both warm white and deeper painted walls.

Heriz Weaving and Origin

Heriz is a group of villages east of Tabriz, in the northwest of Persia below Mount Sabalan. The water there is mineral-rich, and the local sheep produce a wool that is famously tough and high in lanolin, which is exactly why Heriz rugs from a century ago are still on floors today with their pile intact. Weavers worked from memory and from a shared village vocabulary, drawing the medallion in bold steps because the loom and the heavy wool suit angular work better than fine curvilinear detail. That combination of durable wool, cotton foundation and confident geometric drawing is the Heriz signature, and it is visible here in the firm handle and the dense back. If you want to understand what puts a piece like this in the antique category, our guide on how to date an oriental rug walks through the same clues we used: dye behavior, wear pattern, back color and the character of the weave.