8'5" x 11'5" Persian Heriz Rug | Rich Red Geometric Medallion | Dense Village Weave

This is a heavy, tightly packed village rug of the kind Heriz built its name on: 3/8" wool pile on a cotton foundation, a deep red field, and a broad salmon and saffron medallion that reads clearly from across the room. At 8'5" x 11'5" it covers a standard seating group or a 6 to 8 chair table without crowding, and it sits comfortably in the range buyers shop when they browse 8x11 Persian rugs. The pile is even from end to end, the handle is firm and dense, and the ivory selvedges and fringe are intact, as the corner and back photos show. Every rug we ship carries a certificate of authenticity documenting origin, materials, size and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

The drawing is pure Heriz: everything is built from straight lines, right angles and stepped diagonals rather than curves. A large hooked medallion fills the center of the field, its outline stepped in ivory and framed by 4 saffron gold arrowhead projections, with a small dark cross-shaped core holding a pair of tiny red cartouches at the exact center. Above and below it sit anchor-shaped pendants, and the field around the medallion is filled with angular palmettes, serrated leaves, candle-like stems and small hooked rosettes, the vocabulary that puts this piece squarely among traditional Persian geometric rugs. All 4 corners carry large ivory spandrels drawn with vine scrolls and hooked blossoms, each anchored by a boxed motif that reads almost like a small garden plot. The main border runs a dark ground with alternating 8 petal rosettes and angular leaf brackets, flanked by narrow reciprocal guard stripes that keep the heavy field from spilling over the edge.

The Red and Salmon Palette in Detail

The field is a deep brick red that shifts toward wine in the corners and toward a warmer cherry tone where the light catches the pile, exactly the kind of movement you want from wool dyed in small village batches. Against it, the medallion is drawn in a soft salmon rose that lifts several shades lighter than the ground, so the center floats rather than competes, and that salmon is picked up again in the pendants and in the small filler motifs scattered through the field. Saffron gold does the accent work, concentrated in the medallion arrowheads and in the border rosettes, while the spandrels and guard stripes read in a chalky ivory that supplies the only real brightness. The main border and the medallion core drop into a very dark navy that photographs nearly black, and inside the detail work you will find flecks of slate blue, olive, soft pink and cream. Collectors shopping red and burgundy Persian rugs will recognize this as the warm, saturated end of the family rather than a muted or washed version.

Heriz: Village Weaving East of Tabriz

Heriz is a cluster of villages east of Tabriz, on the slopes below Mount Sabalan, and its reputation rests on two things that cannot be copied elsewhere. The first is the water, mineral-rich from the mountain, which sets dye in the fiber and gives these reds their depth. The second is the wool itself, from sheep grazed at altitude, famously coarse, springy and tough, which is why a Heriz takes decades of traffic and keeps its pile. Weavers here work from memory on village looms rather than from a full court cartoon, which is why the drawing is angular and why the two halves of this medallion are close but not identical, a signature of genuine village work. Village weaving is usually knotted at a moderate count, and this piece is clearly at the denser end of it: the back photo shows small, regular, evenly packed knots across the full 101" width, with a firm board-like handle and no looseness at the ends. That combination of heavy wool, tight beat-down and clear geometric drawing is why a good Heriz is the one Persian rug most dealers will put in a house with children, dogs and a front door that gets used.