8'6" x 11'5" Persian Heriz Rug | Geometric Medallion, Deep Burgundy Field | Semi-Antique, Excellent Condition

This is a semi-antique Persian Heriz in the size most American rooms are actually built for, a true 8'6" x 11'5" that sits under a full seating group or a 10 seat table with the chairs still on the wool. The pile is dense sheep's wool on a cotton foundation, knotted by hand in the villages east of Tabriz, and the wear is even from end to end with clear, upright pile and original finished sides and ends. Photographs 2 through 5 show it laid flat under daylight, where the field reads a warm brick to burgundy red; the first image is a closer, deeper rendering of the same piece. Every rug we ship carries a certificate of authenticity recording origin, materials and measurements. If you are shopping 9x12 Persian rugs, this one gives you the scale of a room-size piece with the drawing and dye quality of an older village weave.

Design and Motifs

The layout is the classic Heriz formula drawn with unusual confidence. A large stepped medallion holds the center, its navy core carrying an 8 point rosette with a small checkered boss at the heart, and it throws serrated arms out toward each side of the field. Above and below the medallion sit anchor shaped pendants, and the 4 corners are filled with big ivory spandrels packed with angular palmettes, hooked vines and serrated leaves. What lifts this piece above ordinary village work is the density of the infill: curling vine scrolls, cypress like sprigs and small floral sprays cover nearly every open inch of the burgundy ground, so the eye never runs out of detail. The main border alternates rosettes and shield shaped cartouches on a near black ground, framed by narrow guard stripes of small flower heads. Every line is straight or angled rather than curved, which is exactly how geometric Persian rugs from this district are meant to be drawn.

Color Palette

The field is a deep burgundy red that softens toward brick and terracotta where the light hits the pile, the kind of tonal movement that only comes from wool dyed in small lots. Against it the medallion and spandrel reserves are worked in a dark indigo blue that reads almost black in the border and cooler navy in the medallion core, giving the design its hard outline. Ivory carries the corner spandrels and the outlines of the vine work, and it is a warm cream rather than a bleached white, so it blends instead of shouting. Olive green runs through the leaves, guard stripes and several of the border rosettes, and there are quiet accents of pale rose, camel and soft teal scattered through the palmettes. Black is used sparingly for outlining and for the ground of the main border. The overall effect is rich and traditional but not heavy: a room with cream walls, dark wood or a leather sofa picks up every one of these tones.

Heriz Weaving and Origin

Heriz is a group of villages east of Tabriz, on the slopes below Mount Sabalan in northwest Persia. The water there is mineral rich, and local lore credits it with the famously tough, high luster wool that makes these rugs the workhorses of the Persian weaving world. Weavers work from memory on a cotton foundation rather than from a fully painted cartoon, which is why the drawing is angular, the medallion arms step rather than curve, and no two pieces of this design are ever identical. Village knotting here usually sits under 200 knots per square inch, and the trade-off is deliberate: a heavier, thicker pile that takes decades of traffic without thinning. This example shows that construction well, with a firm handle, straight sides and clean original ends. Among authentic Persian rugs, a semi-antique Heriz in this size and this state of preservation is the piece people keep for a lifetime and then hand down.