9' x 11'7" Persian Heriz Rug | Stepped Geometric Medallion | Red Field, Ivory Spandrels, Excellent Condition

This 9' x 11'7" Persian Heriz is the classic village room rug: one commanding medallion in the center, 4 heavy ivory corner spandrels, and a madder red field packed with small angular drawing that keeps revealing itself the longer you look. The wool is thick, glossy and tightly packed on a cotton foundation, and the pile stands full and even from end to end with no low spots along the walking lines. Because it sits right at the heart of the 9x12 Persian rugs range, it drops cleanly under a full seating group or a 8 seat table without cutting the room short. Every rug we ship leaves Freeport with a certificate of authenticity confirming it is hand-knotted, and the pile close-up here shows the honest knot structure behind that claim.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a stepped, star shaped medallion outlined in ivory, with an 8 sided olive and navy cartouche at its core and serrated leaf arms radiating out in 4 directions. Above and below it sit dark pendant crowns in charcoal brown filled with ivory palmettes, a drawing device the Heriz weavers use to stretch the composition along the length of the rug. Each of the 4 corners carries a broad ivory spandrel loaded with hooked vines, boteh forms and small animal-like figures, so the eye reads the field as a single medallion layout rather than a repeat. The field around the medallion is filled with angular blossoms, cypress forms, rosettes and tiny scattered stars, drawn in straight lines and right angles rather than curves, exactly as geometric Persian rugs from this district should be. The main border runs a turtle palmette and rosette chain on a red ground, flanked by narrow navy guard stripes with a running vine, and the whole frame is finished with tidy selvages and clean white fringe.

A Field of Madder Red, Ivory and Indigo

Red is the governing color, but it is not one flat red. The open field reads as a warm madder tone with a faint abrash that shifts slightly lighter toward the top, while the motifs inside it are picked out in a cooler brick red and a deeper oxblood, so the pattern separates without any outlining needed. Against that, the 4 spandrels and the medallion outline are worked in a soft undyed ivory that has gone slightly buttery with age, and the contrast is what gives the rug its punch across a large room. The blues do the detail work: a dark indigo in the pendants, guard stripes and leaf tips, and a brighter sky blue used sparingly in the vine scrolls and small rosettes. Olive gold and a dark charcoal brown fill the remaining outlines, and a handful of small motifs carry pale peach and black. Anyone shopping red and burgundy Persian rugs for a room with wood floors, leather or cream upholstery will find this palette does the heavy lifting on its own.

Heriz: Village Weaving East of Tabriz

Heriz is a group of weaving villages east of Tabriz, on the slopes below Mount Sabalan in northwest Persia. The water there is mineral rich, and local lore, backed by generations of dealers who have watched these rugs outlive their owners, credits it for wool that is unusually tough and springy. That wool is why Heriz rugs are bought for rooms that actually get used. The weave is a sturdy village knot on a cotton warp and weft, coarser than a city workshop piece by design, with the pattern drawn on graph-like straight lines and stepped corners because the weavers work from memory and village cartoons rather than a fine court drawing. The result is a rug with real weight and body that lies flat, resists crushing under furniture legs and takes decades of traffic without thinning. This example is in excellent condition with full pile, intact ends and no repairs visible in the photographs.