9'8" x 13' Persian Heriz Rug | Rust Geometric Medallion | Antique Village Weave

This is an old Heriz of the kind that decorators have been chasing for a century: a rust field that has mellowed into soft terracotta, a dark navy medallion drawn in straight lines and hard angles, and ivory corners that lift the whole floor. It is hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation, room size at 9'8" x 13', and it sits squarely in the sweet spot for 10x13 Persian rugs under a large seating group or a 10 seat dining table. The pile has the even, settled handle of a rug that was made to be walked on and then cared for, with clean selvedges and full original fringe at both ends. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The layout is the classic Heriz formula, executed with real confidence. A stepped central medallion sits on a dark ground, its heart an ivory panel holding an 8 petal rosette, with hooked pendants running off the top and bottom in the same navy. Four large lobes break out to the sides, each filled with rosettes in olive, salmon and soft blue. Around the medallion the rust field is packed with serrated leaves, angular palmettes, hooked vine brackets and small cypress and shrub forms, every element drawn with the straight lines and right angles that separate geometric Persian rugs from the curvilinear city workshops. Ivory spandrels fill the 4 corners with their own flowering vines and stepped outlines, and the main border carries alternating rosette medallions and leaf forms on navy, flanked by narrow floral guard stripes.

A Closer Look at the Color

The field is rust, but it is not one flat rust. It moves between copper, brick and a dusty salmon as the light crosses it, warmest near the ends and softer through the middle. Against that, the medallion and border read almost black, a navy so deep that only the close-up photographs reveal the blue inside it. The corner spandrels and the medallion center are ivory going to cream, the brightest note in the rug and the reason the drawing stays legible from across a room. Between those three anchors the weavers worked in olive and sage green, a clear cornflower blue in the leaves and border rosettes, powder blue outlines, and touches of pale peach and soft brown. The palette is muted and earthy rather than loud, which is why a Heriz like this sits comfortably with oak floors, leather and both antique and modern furniture.

Heriz: Weaving in the Villages East of Tabriz

Heriz is a cluster of villages east of Tabriz, on the slopes below Mount Sabalan, and the rugs owe their reputation to two local facts. The water is mineral-rich, which gives the wool a hard, glassy surface that resists dirt and takes a shine with age, and the sheep on that high pasture grow some of the toughest fleece in Persia. Heriz weavers work from memory rather than a cartoon, scaling a medallion by eye across a loom this wide, which is why no two are identical and why the drawing has this angular authority. Village knot counts sit below the fine city workshops, but the point of a Heriz was never fineness: it was a thick, heavy, honestly made floor rug that outlasts the house it was bought for. Collectors judge age here by dye behavior, wool handle and the way the back has hardened, all covered in our guide on how to date an oriental rug.