9' x 12' Persian Heriz Rug | Stepped Geometric Medallion | Semi-Antique Village Weave in Brick Red and Ivory

A semi-antique village weave in the most useful proportion there is, this 9' x 12' Heriz was knotted by hand in northwest Persia on a cotton foundation with a 3/8" wool pile that still stands even from selvage to selvage. Both ends and both side cords are intact, the pile has worn down only to that soft, slightly glassy surface that decades of honest use give good Heriz wool, and the condition is excellent throughout. It reads as one of the more relaxed, mellow pieces among our 9x12 Persian rugs, warm rather than loud, and it ships with a certificate of authenticity documenting origin, materials and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

The drawing is pure Heriz: every line is straight or angled, nothing curves. A broad stepped medallion fills the center of the field, built up in tiers of brick red, blue-grey and olive around a small cruciform rosette, with hooked pendants running off the top and bottom axis and four large anchor-shaped palmettes pushing out to the sides. The four corners carry ivory spandrels drawn with angular vinework, jagged leaf forms and small hooked serrations, and they do exactly what they are meant to do, which is throw light back at the dark field. Between medallion and spandrels the field is filled with squared floral heads, tiny stars and stepped leaflets, all of it drawn freehand from memory rather than a formal cartoon. The wide navy main border alternates ivory hexagonal rosettes with hooked brackets and reciprocal minor stripes, one of the most collectible layouts in geometric Persian rugs.

Color Palette

The field is antique brick red, a madder tone that has softened unevenly into rose, dusty terracotta and, in the upper third, a paler clay shade. That abrash is a natural dye lot change and it is the main reason the rug looks old rather than manufactured. Against it sit deep navy blue accents, almost black where the wool took the dye heaviest, in the medallion armature, the anchor palmettes and the wide border. Ivory is the third voice: bright and chalky in the four corner spandrels, thinner in the outlines that trace every motif, and again in the flowerheads of the main border. The close-up of the center shows a cool blue-grey panel inside the medallion with olive and camel-green tracery across it, plus small notes of salmon pink and warm brown in the smaller figures. Chocolate brown outlines and a pale ivory guard stripe frame the whole field.

Heriz Origin and Weaving Quality

Heriz is a cluster of weaving villages east of Tabriz, on the slopes below Mount Sabalan, and its reputation comes from two things the weavers did not have to buy: mineral-rich water that sets the madder and indigo dyes, and local sheep whose fleece is famously tough and high in lanolin. That wool is why a Heriz survives four generations of furniture and foot traffic while finer city rugs go thin. Weaving here is a single-wefted village craft counted in rows rather than Raj, with most pieces falling under 200 knots per square inch, so the value sits in the wool, the dyes and the confidence of the drawing rather than in fineness. The back photograph shows exactly that: a firm, regular knot over a cotton foundation, with the pattern legible from the reverse. For anyone wanting to place a piece like this in time, our guide on how to date an oriental rug covers the dye, wear and construction clues that put this one in the semi-antique bracket.