How do you clean them?

Dust needs removing first. A vacuum cleaner works for the surface, but the heavy foundation traps grit at the base of the knots. That grit acts like sandpaper on the wool. Professional washing uses cold water and mild soap. The rug is flushed flat on a floor, squeegeed to push out the dirt, and air-dried quickly to stop the cotton foundation from rotting.

Why are the edges curling?

Uneven tension during the original weaving process causes the selvedges to pull tight. Damp conditions also shrink the cotton weft cords unevenly. Improper washing is usually the culprit. Slow drying after a wet wash warps the entire cotton frame.

I inherited this heavy rug from my grandmother and it has a big geometric star in the middle, but the red colour looks different on one side than the other. Is that normal?

That colour shift is called abrash. It happens when weavers run out of one batch of dyed wool and start using another. Dyeing wool in small village batches meant the madder root recipes rarely matched exactly from pot to pot. Dealers expect this in an antique Heriz rug. It breaks up the solid blocks of colour and shows the piece was woven on a small scale rather than in a large commercial factory.

We are putting a rug in the dining room and I want to know if the heavy chairs being dragged back and forth will ruin the pile on an old one?

Constant friction will wear down any wool pile eventually. Chair legs act like pestles grinding into the foundation. These rugs have a reputation for toughness due to their thick structure and durable local wool. Adding a proper underlay helps absorb the downward pressure, but you still need to rotate the rug occasionally to spread the wear evenly across the surface.

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Antique Heriz Rugs from the 19th Century

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Woven in the towns and villages of northwest Iran, an antique Heriz rug is a robust, room-sized floor covering characterised by bold, geometric medallions and thick cotton foundations.