11'4"x16'2" Persian Heriz Rug | Rare Oversize Geometric Design | 240-260 KPSI | Circa 1980

We do not see Heriz rugs like this often. It measures 11'4" by 16'2", and looms that wide were rare in the Heriz villages to begin with. Then there is the color. Ask anyone to picture a Heriz and they will describe rust red with a navy medallion. This one has a pale ivory field with denim blue corners, and the knot count is 240 to 260. Any of those on its own would be worth pointing out. Together, in one rug at this length, is why we called it rare. It was woven around 1980 in wool on a cotton foundation and has never been on a floor. If you are shopping at this scale it is worth seeing the rest of our oversize Persian rugs alongside it. A certificate of authenticity comes with every rug we sell.

Design and Motifs

Everything here is drawn with straight lines and stepped corners. That is the Heriz signature, and it is what separates a village weaving from a city workshop where the curves flow. A large ivory diamond takes up the middle of the field, its edges notched and hooked, and inside it sits a small sage green medallion with a rosette at the center and four dark palmettes pointing out along the axes. Cream and brown anchor palmettes reach out above and below. Two teal cartouches with olive outlines mark the tip of the diamond at each end. The ivory ground inside is filled with serrated leaves, hooked vines, little eight point stars and stylized blossoms, all drawn small, so from standing height the field reads as texture and you have to crouch before the individual motifs separate out. The four corner spandrels are denim blue with their own big palmettes and leaf sprays in rust and cream. Five bands of border around it all, the main one salmon with rosettes and medallions on brown vinework, then navy guard stripes of small flowerheads and narrow reciprocal edging at the outside. Watch the corners where the border has to turn. Plenty of village rugs lose the pattern there. This one resolves it cleanly on all four.

Colors in Detail

The field is ivory with a faint straw warmth in it, not white and not quite cream. That alone makes the rug read lighter and more open than a red Heriz ever will. The corner spandrels are denim blue, the slightly greyed mid indigo that came out of the Heriz dye pots, and it is the color your eye goes to first. The main border is salmon, a dusty pink with terracotta sitting underneath it, and the medallions on it come in sage, olive and cream. Inside the field the secondary colors carry most of the work: muted terracotta in the leaf sprays, olive green edging nearly every outline, dusty sage in the center medallion, deep aubergine brown in the anchor palmettes and the finest details, cream and ivory through the vinework, and a few hits of real teal green in the cartouches that jump out against everything around them. The outermost guard border drops to dark navy, which frames the rug and keeps all that pale ground from floating. Nothing is harsh and nothing has faded. These are the soft, slightly dusty tones good Heriz wool takes on, and in a room where a saturated red rug would take over, this one settles in instead.

Origin and Weaving

Heriz is a group of villages east of Tabriz in northwest Persia, below Mount Sabalan. Its reputation was built on durability rather than fineness. The water there runs high in minerals, the wool off those flocks is famously tough, and a Heriz will outlast almost anything else you put on a floor. Which is what makes the weave on this one worth mentioning. Village Heriz rugs usually sit under 200 knots per square inch. At 240 to 260 this one holds far more detail than the format normally allows, and that is why those miniature leaves and stars keep their shape all the way down sixteen feet instead of turning to mush. On a cotton foundation it is heavy and stable, so it lies flat the day you unroll it and stays that way. Condition is excellent, never used, full pile, straight sides, clean fringe.