8' x 11' Persian Heriz Rug | Star Medallion on Antique Pink Field | Excellent Condition

This is the classic village weave of northwest Persia in a room size that actually works: a 10 point star medallion floating on a soft antique pink field, framed by ivory corner spandrels and a wide graphite black leaf border. The pile is a sturdy 3/8" wool on a cotton foundation, the handle is firm without being stiff, and the drawing is confidently angular rather than fussy. At 8 feet by 11 feet it is one of the most livable formats we carry, and it sits squarely among the 8x11 Persian rugs that anchor a sofa group without crowding a room. Condition is excellent, with even pile from end to end and full original cotton fringe, and the rug ships with our certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a small 8 petal rosette in olive gold and pale blue, ringed by an ivory outlined star and then by a large graphite black medallion whose lobes are filled with serrated leaves and rose palmettes. Above and below it, two black anchor shaped pendants extend the composition along the length of the field, a device that keeps an 11 foot rug from reading empty in the middle. The four corners carry ivory spandrels drawn with hooked outlines and small stepped rosettes, and the open field between them is filled with angular vine work, hooked tendrils, tiny blossoms and stiff little bud sprays. The main border runs a steady alternation of large leaf shaped cartouches, rose against black and dark green against black, separated by small scrolling brackets, with narrow diamond guard stripes in cornflower blue on either side. Everything is drawn on the diagonal and the straight line, which is exactly what buyers look for in geometric Persian rugs: no curved court drawing, just bold village geometry that reads clearly from across a room.

A Soft Antique Pink Field Against Graphite Black

The field is a warm antique pink, the shade an old madder red settles into after decades of light, closer to dusty rose and terracotta than to fire engine red, and it shifts slightly from one side of the rug to the other the way hand dyed wool does. Against it, the medallion and border ground read as a deep graphite black with a brownish cast where the wool catches the light, and the spandrels and medallion outlines are a clean grey beige ivory that keeps the whole composition legible. Inside the black areas the weaver set rose, brick and dark forest green leaves, so the border alternates cool green and warm pink at a regular beat. Smaller quantities of olive gold, soft cornflower blue and pale aqua run through the field flowers and the guard stripes, and those blues are what lift the palette out of a straight red and black scheme. It is a restrained, softly aged color set that sits easily with walnut and oak floors, cream walls, leather and natural linen.

Heriz Weaving in the Villages East of Tabriz

Heriz is a group of villages east of Tabriz on the slopes below Mount Sabalan, and its reputation rests on two things: mineral rich water that gives the local fleece unusual strength, and a weaving tradition that translates classical Persian medallion design into straight lines and stepped corners drawn from memory rather than from a full cartoon. That is why a Heriz looks the way it does, and also why it wears the way it does. Village looms here work at a moderate knot count, generally under 200 knots per square inch, and the point was never fineness: it was a thick, tightly packed wool pile on a cotton foundation that could take a century of traffic in a busy household. This piece shows that character plainly in the photographs, with a dense 3/8" pile, crisp selvages, tidy weft lines visible on the reverse and even wear across the whole surface. It is the practical end of Persian weaving, built for floors rather than for walls.