9'1" x 12' Heriz Serapi Rug | Rust & Ivory Geometric Medallion | Hand-Knotted Wool, Made in India

This 9'1" x 12' room-size piece is a new, never used hand-knotted rug worked in the Heriz Serapi idiom: a big stepped medallion, ivory corner spandrels and a rust field drawn in straight lines and angles rather than curves. The pile is wool on a cotton foundation, clipped at a medium height that keeps the outlines crisp while leaving plenty of body underfoot, and the handle is firm and heavy the way this design should feel. Every rug we ship carries a certificate of authenticity documenting that it is genuinely hand-knotted, along with its size, materials and design.

Design and Motifs

The center holds an 8 lobed indigo medallion with a hooked, stepped silhouette, and inside it sit 4 small panels of paired blossoms around a pale blue rosette with a tiny latch-hook heart at dead center. Serrated leaves and arrowhead palmettes radiate out from the core, and long leaf pendants in ivory and olive drop from the top and bottom tips onto the open rust field. All 4 corners carry ivory spandrels filled with curling vine, small squared cartouches and scattered blossoms, which is the classic framing device of these bold geometric medallion rugs. The main border repeats tan and ivory hexagonal cartouches linked by a heavy ivory bracket vine, with rosettes and little tulip forms between them, and it is held on both sides by slate blue guard stripes carrying a bar and star meander. The drawing is deliberately chunky and confident, so the pattern still reads clearly from across a large room.

Color Palette: Rust, Indigo and Ivory

The field is a warm brick rust that shifts gently between terracotta and a deeper oxidized red as the light moves across the pile, the natural variation you want to see in hand-spun wool rather than a flat printed tone. Against it the medallion and the outlines read as a very dark indigo blue that goes almost black in the shadows, which is what gives the pattern its weight. Creamy ivory does the structural work in the spandrels, the border vine and the leaf pendants, while the guard stripes bring in a softer slate blue that lifts the whole palette and keeps it from reading only as red. Scattered through the field and border are mustard yellow blossoms, olive and sage green leaves, salmon pink flower heads, cocoa brown and occasional bottle green accents, all small enough to work as seasoning. The cream fringe and the pale blue outer band finish the edges. If your room is built around warm reds, this sits comfortably with other rust and burgundy rugs, wood floors and leather.

Origin and Weaving Quality

This rug was hand-knotted in India, which is where most of the world's good contemporary Oriental rug production now happens: skilled village looms, well-washed wool and the patience required to copy a village medallion layout correctly. Serapi is the trade name given to the heavier, more boldly drawn grade of the Heriz family, and the weaver here has stayed faithful to it, with straight stepped outlines, honest asymmetries between the 4 corners and no attempt to smooth the design into something machine-neat. The back photograph shows an even cotton foundation with regular, tightly packed rows, the sign of a weave kept under steady tension across all 12 feet of length. A single large field color over that much surface is difficult to carry, and it has been handled well. Thick wool pile on a cotton base is also the most practical construction for a high-traffic family space, and in perfect, never used condition this one has its entire working life ahead of it.