10'2" x 13'4" Persian Kashan Rug | Ivory Floral Medallion | Signed Cartouche

A pale, quiet room-size floral is much harder to weave well than a dark one, because nothing hides behind a red ground: every stem, every outline and every knot has to be drawn correctly. This Persian Kashan rug measures 10'2" x 13'4" and holds up to that scrutiny, with a soft ivory field, a taupe and light blue star medallion, and a woven signature cartouche set into the top border, which tells you it left a named workshop rather than an anonymous loom. The 3/8" wool pile is dense and even underfoot, the cotton foundation lies flat, and at this footprint it covers a 12 x 15 seating plan or a full formal dining set with chairs pulled back. It is one of the more refined pieces in our 10x13 Persian rugs group and ships with a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a many-pointed star medallion on a taupe ground, built up in concentric rings: a small navy rosette at the core, then a wreath of light blue boteh and curling arabesques, then a scalloped outer edge that throws out short pendants north and south. Around it the field is not left open but filled edge to edge with an all-over lattice of curved vines, split palmettes, lotus blossoms and small serrated leaves, all mirrored across both axes so the drawing reads the same from either end of the room. Four corner spandrels repeat the medallion vocabulary at reduced scale and close the composition. The border system is deep for a rug this size: a wide main band of alternating palmettes and flowering stems, flanked by narrow reciprocal guard stripes and a fine outer meander, with the signature cartouche interrupting the main band at the top. Careful drawing like this is why 10x13 Kashan floral pieces sit comfortably under antique furniture and modern upholstery alike.

A Study in Ivory, Blue and Olive Green

The ground is a warm, slightly creamy ivory, the tone of undyed wool with a little gloss to it, and it carries roughly 70 percent of the surface, which is what makes the rug feel light in a large room. Against it the blues do the structural work in two clear registers: a chalky powder blue that fills the arabesques, leaf bodies and guard stripes, and a deep navy used for outlines, the medallion core and the stems that trace the vine lattice. Olive green appears in the small serrated leaves and in the flowering sprays of the main border, warming the blue so the palette never turns cold. Between those, the medallion and inner border sit on a mushroom taupe, and tiny accents of brick rust and old gold flicker through the blossoms, no more than a few knots at a time but enough to keep the field alive at close range. Buyers shopping ivory Persian rugs for a bright room will find this one of the calmer, more livable readings of the classic Kashan palette.

Kashan: Central Persia and the Signed Workshop Piece

Kashan sits in central Persia, north of Isfahan, and its looms trace back to the Safavid court workshops that set the standard for curved-line floral weaving. The town's reputation rests on two things: soft, lustrous local wool that takes dye beautifully and holds a low even clip, and a workshop discipline that keeps the vine drawing accurate across a 13 foot length. Kashan is also the Persian rug most Americans have already seen without knowing its name: when you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. On this piece the back shows a tight, regular knot bed with straight wefts and no drawn-in edges, the hallmark of a weaver working from a proper cartoon rather than memory, and the cartouche in the top border marks it as a named workshop's output. Add the excellent condition and the full 3/8" pile still standing, and this is a Kashan bought at the stage where it has decades of floor life in front of it.