9'8" x 13' Persian Heriz Rug | Unusual All Over Multi Medallion Design | Excellent Condition Wool Pile

Most Heriz rugs you will meet carry one large medallion in the middle of a red field. This one does not, and that is the whole reason to look twice at it. Across 9'8" x 13' the weaver laid out a repeating field of 4 navy medallions set into ivory lattice panels, with a fifth ivory and red medallion holding the center, so the drawing reads like a garden panel rather than the usual single anchor. The wool pile is 3/8" and still full, the handle is heavy and tight, and the colors are the honest madder red, ivory and sky blue of the Heriz villages. It ships with our certificate of authenticity, and at this footprint it sits comfortably among the 10x13 Persian rugs that cover a full seating group without crowding the walls.

Design and Motifs

The field is built as an all over design rather than a single centerpiece: 4 stepped navy medallions, each filled with small barred cartouches and 8 petal rosettes, sit in the quarters of the rug, and ivory lattice bands run diagonally between them to knit the whole layout together. Where those ivory bands cross, the weaver drew large angular palmettes and serrated leaves in olive, wine and gold, and the central ivory lozenge carries a red and navy star at its heart. Everything is drawn on the straight line and the diagonal, with no curved vinework at all, which is exactly what you want from village geometric rugs of this group. The main border is a deep navy ground carrying alternating angular palmettes and rosettes, flanked by a narrow brown and gold reciprocal guard on the inner edge and a fine barber pole minor stripe outside. Small filler figures, tiny combs, birds and blossoms crowd the open red ground, which is the mark of a weaver working from memory rather than a strict cartoon.

Color: Madder Red, Ivory and Sky Blue

The dominant note is a warm madder red that shifts between brick and a softer rose depending on the angle of light, a variation that comes from separate dye lots of hand-spun wool and gives the field its depth. Against it, the ivory is a true undyed cream rather than a bleached white, and it does the structural work here, outlining the lattice panels, the corner spandrels and the central lozenge so the geometry stays legible from across a room. Sky blue appears as the fine outlining around every medallion and palmette, a pale cool line that keeps the red from going heavy, and it deepens into indigo navy for the medallion grounds and the main border. Scattered through the drawing are small hits of mustard gold, teal, olive green, aubergine and a dusty salmon pink, each one used in single motifs rather than in masses. Set on a pale floor the red reads rich and saturated; over dark wood the ivory and sky blue come forward and the rug looks noticeably lighter.

Heriz Origin and Weaving Quality

Heriz is a group of villages east of Tabriz, on the slopes below Mount Sabalan in northwest Persia. The water there is mineral rich, and local belief, backed by generations of dealers handling the goods, is that it gives the fleece its famous toughness: Heriz wool wears slowly, takes dye cleanly and holds a lustrous surface for decades. The weaving is village work on a cotton foundation, with a single weft structure and a thick, chunky knot, and the back shown in the final photograph makes that construction plain. Knot count in this group generally sits under 200 knots per square inch, which is not a shortcoming but the reason the drawing is angular: every curve becomes a step, and the design is scaled up to suit. That coarser, heavier build is also why Heriz rugs of this age are still on floors while finer city pieces of the same period have thinned. This example is in excellent condition with full pile throughout, even edges and complete ends, and the unusual multi medallion layout makes it a harder piece to replace than a standard center medallion Heriz of the same size.