9'6" x 12'6" Persian Heriz Rug | Geometric Stepped Medallion | Deep Brick Burgundy, Excellent Condition

This is a full room size Persian Heriz, hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation and measuring 9'6" x 12'6", which is the proportion a Heriz was built for: a long, wide field that lets the stepped medallion breathe instead of crowding it. The pile is still deep and evenly worn across the whole surface, the ends and sides are sound, and the drawing is confident village work rather than a copied cartoon. Among large Persian rugs this is the size that most often has to carry an entire living room, and a Heriz of this weight and wool quality will do it for generations. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity documenting origin, materials and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a large stepped medallion outlined in red against a blue black ground, with an 8 petal rosette at its heart and hooked pendants running north and south along the long axis. Every line in the field is drawn with straight segments and right angle steps, which is the signature of the Heriz loom and the reason the pattern reads clearly from across a room. Serrated leaves, angular palmettes and small architectural blocks fill the field around the medallion, and the 4 corners carry ivory spandrels packed with vines, rosettes and stylized cypress forms. The main border is a blue black band of alternating palmettes and eight petal flower heads, framed by narrow reciprocal guard stripes. Anyone shopping geometric Persian rugs will recognize this as the classical Heriz formula executed without shortcuts.

Deep Brick Burgundy, Blue Black and Olive

The field is a deep brick burgundy, a warm red with brown depth in it rather than a bright commercial red, and it shifts slightly from panel to panel in the way hand-dyed wool always does. Against that field the medallion interior, the spandrel outlines and the main border are a blue black so dark it reads as charcoal until light hits it, at which point a true indigo comes through. Olive green does the quiet work, coloring leaves, small stems and scattered rosettes, and it keeps the red and the near black from becoming a two tone rug. Ivory is used with restraint but to real effect in the corner spandrels, in the outlines of the central rosette and in the thin guard stripes, where it draws a clean white line around every major shape. Soft rose, pale blue grey, camel and a touch of gold appear in the smaller flower heads and give the surface its multicolor life when you stand close.

Heriz Weaving in Northwest Persia

Heriz is a cluster of villages east of Tabriz, on the slopes below Mount Sabalan, and its reputation comes from two local advantages: mineral-rich water that sets the dyes, and sheep whose fleece produces an unusually tough, slightly glossy wool. Weavers there work from memory and from a village drawing tradition rather than a full cartoon, which is why the lines are angular and why no two Heriz rugs of the same layout are identical. Village knot counts generally sit below 200 knots per square inch, and that is by design: a heavier knot on a strong cotton foundation gives a thick, dense fabric that takes decades of traffic. The back of this rug, shown alongside a ruler, has an even, tight and well squared knot line with no loose or irregular sections, which is the practical proof of a good Heriz loom and careful beat-down.