8'6" x 11' Persian Heriz Rug | Rust Red Geometric Medallion | Handspun Wool, Excellent Condition

A Heriz earns its keep on the floor, and this one has the weight and the wool to prove it. The 8'6" x 11' format is the classic Heriz room size, wide enough to carry a full seating group and long enough to sit under a dining table with chairs pulled back, which is why buyers searching 8x11 Persian rugs keep landing on this village type. The pile is handspun wool on a cotton foundation, clipped evenly from end to end, with the low even nap and firm handle of a piece that has been kept flat and cared for. Selvedges are intact, the ends are secure, and the back reads cleanly with no repairs visible in the weave. Every rug we ship leaves Freeport with a certificate of authenticity recording origin, materials and measurements.

Design and Motifs

The drawing is pure Heriz: everything curved in a city workshop is redrawn here in straight lines and steps. A large navy medallion anchors the center, built from an 8 point star core with ivory lancet leaves radiating out and a stepped pendant reaching toward each end. Four ivory spandrels fill the corners with serrated vine work and hooked palmettes, and between medallion and corners the rust field is packed with angular leaf forms, small rosettes and blocky floral heads that lean toward the tribal side of the vocabulary. The main border runs a charcoal ground with alternating ivory and salmon palmettes, framed by narrow reciprocal guard stripes and a fine barber pole outer band. Look closely at the two halves and you will find small deliberate differences in color and filler, the signature of a village loom where the weavers work from memory rather than a full cartoon. Collectors of geometric Persian rugs look for exactly that kind of hand drawn variation.

The Color: Rust Red, Ivory and Deep Navy

The field reads as a warm rust red that shifts between brick and terracotta as the light moves across the pile, a natural variation in the handspun yarn rather than a flaw. Against it, the medallion and the main border sit in a deep navy that goes almost charcoal in the shadows, giving the layout its structure from across the room. Ivory does the lifting: the corner spandrels, the leaf outlines inside the medallion and the palmettes in the border all glow against the darker grounds. Secondary colors are where this rug gets interesting, with soft salmon and apricot in the leaf forms, muted sage and olive green tracing the medallion outline, and small touches of pale blue grey and mustard scattered through the field. The overall effect is warm and mellow, easy to place with wood tones, leather and brass. Shoppers working in this palette often browse our wider selection of red and burgundy Persian rugs.

Heriz: The Villages East of Tabriz

Heriz is a cluster of weaving villages in northwest Persia, east of Tabriz on the slopes below Mount Sabalan. The wool from the flocks there is famously tough and high in lanolin, and the mineral rich water used in washing and dyeing is the reason Heriz reds and blues age the way they do, softening rather than fading. The weave is a single wefted village weave on a cotton foundation, heavier and coarser than city work, which is exactly the point: a Heriz is built to be walked on for generations, not hung on a wall. Knot density here is in the normal village range, and the back photograph with the ruler shows the regular, honest knotting and clean color changes you want to see. Because the design is carried by bold shapes rather than fine detail, this weave suits it perfectly, and it is the main reason a well kept Heriz in this size remains one of the most practical traditional rugs you can buy for a busy room.