10'3" x 14'6" Persian Kashan Rug | Navy Field with Rose Medallion | Semi-Antique Oversize

This is a full room size Persian Kashan rug in the classic central medallion format, hand-knotted in fine wool on a cotton foundation and measuring 10'3" x 14'6". The field is a deep navy blue, almost ink dark where the pile turns away from the light, and it carries a rose red medallion with an ivory heart that anchors the whole composition. The pile is full and even across the surface with no thin areas or repairs visible in the photographs, which is why the condition reads excellent rather than merely good. At this footprint it sits in the same bracket as our other 10x14 Persian rugs, large enough to hold a seating group or a long dining table with the chairs pulled out. Every rug ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming it is hand-knotted in Persia.

Design and Motifs

The drawing follows the textbook Kashan layout. A lobed rose medallion sits dead center, stepped in toward an ivory cartouche that holds a small 8 petal rosette in slate blue and rose, with pointed pendants running off the top and bottom along the long axis. Rose spandrels fill the 4 corners of the field, each one filled with ivory scrolling vine and a turned palmette, and the line where rose meets navy is outlined so the shapes stay crisp from across the room. Between medallion and spandrels the navy ground is covered in a continuous vine system: lotus palmettes, open rosettes, tulip heads and small serrated leaves, all curved rather than angular, with the two halves mirrored precisely down the center. The main border is navy as well, carrying a rose vine with alternating palmettes, and it is framed on both sides by pale slate blue guard bands drawn with small floral sprigs and by narrow ivory stripes that keep the whole frame from going heavy. Ivory fringe finishes both ends.

A Navy Ground Lit by Rose, Ivory and Slate Blue

Most Kashan weavings put red on the field and navy in the medallion. This one inverts the formula, which is what makes it useful in a room that already has strong wood tones or warm walls. The ground is a saturated navy blue that reads nearly black in the close photographs and opens up to a clear midnight blue in daylight. Against it the medallion, spandrels and the wide inner surround are a rose red with a slightly salmon cast, softer than a fire engine red and easier to live with. Ivory does the detail work: the medallion core, the outlines around every palmette, the guard stripes and the fringe. Pale slate blue appears as a third voice in the rosettes and in the two guard borders, cooling the rose down, and camel gold and small touches of brick turn up in the leaves and vine tips. If you are shopping navy blue Persian rugs, this palette is the traditional end of that range rather than the muted or washed end.

Kashan, Central Persia, and How This Rug Was Woven

Kashan lies in central Persia, north of Isfahan, and its workshops trace back to the Safavid court weavers who set the standard for the curved line and the medallion layout that the rest of the country later copied. The local wool is soft and lustrous, which is why a Kashan tends to gain sheen with use instead of going dull, and you can see that shine in the floor photographs where the light crosses the pile. This piece is workshop work rather than village work: symmetrical Persian knots on a cotton foundation, a drawing that closes correctly at every corner, and a knot count high enough to hold the fine vine scroll at reduced scale over almost 150 square feet. It is also the design most Americans already know without knowing the name, because when you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor.