9' x 12' Persian Heriz Rug | Geometric Medallion, Navy Border & Ivory Spandrels | Antique

Heriz weaving is everywhere in the trade, but a piece with this particular palette is not. The field has aged into a soft salmon rose over a burgundy base, the kind of tone that only comes from decades of light and careful use, and the wool still has body and luster underfoot at a 3/8" pile. It is a true room size piece, one of the classic 9x12 Persian rugs that anchors a full living room or sits square under a dining table with chairs pulled out. Hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation, it ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming origin, materials and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

The drawing is pure Heriz: everything resolves into straight lines, angles and stepped edges rather than curves. At the center sits a hooked diamond medallion filled with a light blue ground and a cross of serrated leaves radiating from a small rosette, framed by a dark navy cartouche field that carries its own row of angular leaf forms and hooked appendages. Large ivory spandrels fill the 4 corners, drawn with scrolling vine arms, bold palmettes and small animal-like hooks, and the salmon field between them is packed with serrated leaves, stars, rosettes and tiny scattered blossoms. The navy main border runs a repeat of octagonal rosette medallions alternating with vase and vine forms, bracketed by camel gold guard stripes. It is textbook village composition and a good example of why collectors seek out geometric Persian rugs for rooms that need structure rather than fuss.

Color: Burgundy, Salmon Rose and Deep Navy

The colorway is the reason this rug stands apart. The ground reads as a burgundy red that has mellowed toward salmon and dusty rose, with the tone shifting subtly along the length in the way natural dye lots do. Against it, the border and the medallion surround hold a very dark navy that is almost black at the edge of the pile, giving the whole layout its weight. Cream and undyed ivory carry the corner spandrels and the outlining of the leaves, which keeps the drawing legible from across a room. The accents do the rest: a clear sky teal and a deeper blue-green inside the medallion, soft camel gold in the guard stripes and border vases, touches of sage, brick and dark brown in the smaller motifs. The overall effect is warm and faded in the best sense, a palette that sits easily with oak floors, walnut furniture and both antique and contemporary upholstery.

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 the sheep produce a famously tough, springy fleece, which is why Heriz rugs are the workhorses of the Persian world: they take generations of traffic and simply keep going. Weavers there work from memory rather than a full cartoon, which is what produces the angular medallion, the stepped corners and the small charming asymmetries you can see when you compare the 2 ends of this piece. The back shows a clean, even knot on a cotton foundation with the ivory warps visible at the ends, and the pile has worn down evenly rather than in patches, always a sign of honest use and good wool. If you want to place a piece like this in its period, our guide on how to date an Oriental rug walks through the same clues we use.