10'3" x 16'7" Persian Kashan Rug | Signed Oversize Medallion | Red & Navy 1980s Wool

A 10'3" x 16'7" floor piece is a commitment, and this one was drawn for the job. Woven in the 1980s in wool on a cotton foundation, it belongs to the best known group of Persian Kashan rugs: deep red field, navy lobed medallion, ivory spandrels, and a border system that frames rather than competes. The weaver signed it in a cartouche at the top of the main border, which on a piece this scale means it left a named workshop rather than an anonymous loom. The pile is full and even, the handle is supple, and the wool has taken on the quiet sheen that only decades of settling produce. It ships with a certificate of authenticity, and its proportions place it squarely among oversize Persian rugs built for long, open rooms.

Design and Motifs

The layout is the classic Kashan formula executed with unusual patience. A navy lobed medallion sits dead center, filled with an ivory sunburst rosette and ringed by small palmettes, and it sends a slim pendant north and south into the field. The field itself is not left open: it carries a dense all over lattice of curling leaves, 8 petal rosettes, tulip forms and split palmettes on thin vine stems, each blossom outlined so the drawing stays legible from standing height. Four navy spandrels close the corners with ivory arabesque scrollwork, repeating the medallion in miniature. The main border runs a navy ground with alternating palmettes and rosettes joined by a serpentine vine, flanked by a light blue guard stripe of paired leaf and flower heads and an ivory outer stripe. The woven cartouche visible in the third photograph breaks the border rhythm at the top, the weaver's mark on his own work.

The Color: Madder Red Anchored by Navy and Ivory

The field is a true madder red, warm and slightly brick toned rather than cherry, and it shifts a full shade lighter or deeper as you walk around it because the pile lies in one direction. Against it the navy reads almost black in the medallion core and softens to an inky midnight through the border, giving the piece its weight. Ivory does the lifting: it fills the spandrels, outlines the vine work and forms the outer guard, and it is a creamy old ivory with a beige cast rather than a bleached white. Scattered through the field are the accent tones that keep a red rug from going flat, light pink petals, dusty rose, pale sky blue leaves, small beige and soft gold highlights and occasional touches of green in the border foliage. The overall effect is jewel toned and formal, and it will pull warmth out of dark wood floors while holding its own against pale walls.

Kashan: The Town and the Weave

Kashan sits in central Persia north of Isfahan and has been a weaving center since the Safavid court workshops, which is why its drawing is so disciplined and why the red field, navy medallion, ivory spandrel formula became the reference point for formal Persian design worldwide. When you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. The town's own wool is soft and lustrous, and Kashan weavers spin it fine and beat it down hard on a cotton warp, which is what gives this piece its close, flat back, visible in the final photograph next to the ruler. Weaving a single rug of this width takes multiple weavers seated on one loom for years, keeping the medallion centered and the vine repeats true across 123 inches, and the fact that the maker signed the border tells you he was confident the work would stand up to that scrutiny.