9'6" x 13'4" Persian Heriz Rug | Geometric Medallion | Deep Apple Red | Excellent Condition

This is the Heriz that people picture when they think of a red Persian rug: a deep warm apple red field, a single ivory medallion holding the center, and heavy black-navy corners that square the whole composition off. At 9'6" x 13'4" it covers a full seating group with the sofa and chairs sitting on wool rather than floating at the edges, which is exactly what buyers shopping 10x13 Persian rugs are usually trying to solve. The pile is thick, even and firmly packed on a cotton foundation, the condition is excellent, and the drawing has the confident hand of a weaver working from memory rather than a cartoon. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The center holds an 8 petal ivory rosette set inside a stepped diamond medallion outlined in slate blue and black, with tall serrated pendants running off the top and bottom axis. Around it the field carries the angular Heriz vocabulary in full: hooked bracket motifs, small paired cartouches with 4 divided panels, arrow-shaped palmettes and long jagged leaves, all drawn in straight lines and right angles because the village loom rewards the angle over the curve. The 4 corner spandrels are worked in dense ivory botanical sprays that read almost as lacework against the red, giving the rug its light and dark rhythm from across the room. The main border is a black ground filled with rosettes, star medallions and serrated leaf forms, framed by narrow reciprocal guard stripes and a fine ivory outer line. It is a classic example of the kind of bold geometric Persian rugs that anchor a traditional or transitional room without needing anything else on the floor.

A Field of Deep Warm Apple Red

The field is a deep warm apple red, a shade with real depth to it rather than a flat commercial crimson: in the close-up photographs you can see it shift between a darker brick tone and a brighter cherry where the light catches the wool. Against that red, the ivory does the heavy lifting, clean and slightly creamy in the medallion, the spandrels and the outlining of nearly every motif. The border and the medallion outline are a black so dark it reads as charcoal until you look closely and find the navy in it. Scattered through the field and border are olive green leaves, muted gold and camel tones in the smaller rosettes, and a soft slate blue that turns almost lavender where it sits against the red. A few small accents of true green and rose appear inside the border flowers. It is a warm, saturated palette that works with walnut and cherry woods, cognac leather, brass and cream plaster walls.

Heriz: The Villages East of Tabriz

Heriz is a group of weaving villages in northwest Persia, east of Tabriz on the slopes below Mount Sabalan. The wool from those flocks is famously tough and high in lanolin, and the mineral-rich water used in washing and dyeing is credited with the particular depth the reds and blues take on there. Weavers work from memory on a cotton foundation, which is why the drawing is angular, the medallion is stepped rather than lobed, and no two Heriz rugs are ever quite identical. Village weaving of this type is normally knotted below 200 knots per square inch, and that is a strength rather than a shortcoming: the heavier knot and thick pile are what let a Heriz take decades of traffic in a living room or dining room and still look like this one does. Hand-knotted entirely in wool and finished with the flat woven ends and overcast selvedges you can see in the photographs, this 9'6" x 13'4" piece is a durable, honest example of the tradition.