The Heriz village of northwestern Iran specialised by the late 1800s in a heavier, more architectural reading of the Persian medallion. The drawing was angular rather than curvilinear, the palette built around madder red and indigo blue, the medallion pulled toward geometry. Heriz carpets were prized for taking heavy traffic without losing structure.

The loom carried this piece for several months. Hand-tied knots at approximately 145 per square inch on a cotton foundation. Hand-spun wool dyed in small lots from madder root, indigo, oak gall, and walnut hull, each batch matured in copper vats for two to three weeks before the wool was lowered.

The composition

A central medallion reads as the architectural anchor. The red grounds the composition; the ivory works as relief above it. The palette settles into the deep saturations that vegetable dye holds without ever flattening. Over the first decade the reds will warm and the ivories will move toward bone.

What you are buying

Antique nineteenth-century Caucasian Kazaks of comparable scale and condition appear at Christie's, Sotheby's, and Rippon Boswell at hammer prices between $8,000 and $25,000 when they appear at all. This is a new weaving in the same tradition, on the same loom, in the same vegetable-dyed wool. The rug appreciates with use rather than depreciating, and there is no other object you put on a floor with that property at any price.

The piece in a room

At the size as listed, the rug works as the central composition of a room arranged around it. Mid-tone walls hold the saturation. The red carries warmth into the architecture without competing with upholstery or art.

Conservation

Rotate a half turn each spring and autumn so light and traffic age the rug evenly. Vacuum weekly with suction only, beater bar disengaged. Blot spills with a clean cotton cloth without rubbing. Hand-wash by a wool-trained conservator every five years. Cared for this way, the rug runs eighty to a hundred years and outlives its first owner.

Reference

• Medium: hand-knotted wool on cotton foundation
• Dimensions: size as listed
• Construction: symmetric (Turkish) knot, hand-tied
• Pile: 10 mm, hand-spun wool
• Dye: vegetable (madder, indigo, oak gall, walnut hull)
• Origin: India

Free shipping anywhere in India. Cash on delivery available. 7-day exchange. Crated for safe transit and storage.