10'4" x 13'2" Persian Kashan Rug | Ivory Field & Powder Blue Medallion | Signed Cartouche

Most Kashans come to us in red. This one does not, and that is the whole point of it. The field is a quiet ivory, the medallion is a soft powder blue rather than the usual navy, and the drawing across all 136 square feet stays fine and disciplined right into the corners. It is a signed piece: the cartouche woven into the end border, shown in the close-up photograph, is the workshop's own mark and tells you this came off a named loom rather than an anonymous one. At 10'4" x 13'2" it is a true room-size Persian Kashan rug, wide enough to sit under a full sofa group or a 10-seat table, and it sits alongside our other 10x13 Persian rugs. Every rug we ship carries a certificate of authenticity documenting origin, materials and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

The layout is the classic Kashan formula executed with unusual restraint. A small lobed medallion holds the center, stepped and cusped on all sides, with an inner ivory panel carrying a tiny 8 petal rosette and paired split-leaf arabesques. Pendants run north and south of it, and 4 large spandrels anchor the corners of the field, each filled with the same curling vine work so the eye reads the field as one continuous garden rather than a medallion dropped onto a blank ground. Between them the ivory field is packed with palmettes, serrated saz leaves, half-open lotus blooms and five-petal rosettes, all strung on thin scrolling stems that mirror each other perfectly across both axes. The border system is deep: a wide beige main band of alternating palmettes and leaf sprays, flanked by narrow reciprocal guard stripes and a fine vine minor border on either side. Look at the corner photograph and you can see the border pattern turn cleanly at the miter, which is the mark of a cartoon drawn properly rather than improvised at the edge.

A Cool Ivory, Powder Blue and Green Palette

The ground is a warm ivory, closer to unbleached cream than white, and it carries a soft sheen where the wool catches the light. Over it the weaver worked in two blues: a pale powder blue that fills the medallion, the spandrels and many of the flower heads, and a deep inky navy used only for outlines, stems and the darkest leaf shadows. That contrast is what keeps the design legible from standing height. Green does a lot of quiet work here, an olive to sage tone running through the leaves and vine stems, with flashes of a cooler teal in the smaller blossoms. Small red and burgundy rosettes are scattered as accents, never large enough to dominate, and touches of rust and pale gold warm the main border. The overall temperature is cool and light, which makes this rug far easier to live with in a modern interior than a traditional red-ground Kashan, and it sits comfortably with grey upholstery, blue-painted cabinetry, walnut or white oak floors.

Kashan: Central Persia's Workshop Weaving

Kashan sits in central Persia, north of Isfahan, and its looms trace back to the Safavid court workshops that produced some of the most famous carpets in museum collections today. The town built its modern reputation on two things: soft, lustrous local wool that takes dye beautifully and holds a low even pile, and a workshop discipline that keeps the curved line accurate over a rug this large. It is also the most recognizable Persian city weave in America. When you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. On the back, shown here against a ruler, the knotting is tight and regular row after row, the cotton foundation is firm, and the pile has been clipped low so the drawing reads sharply. Combined with the signed border cartouche and the excellent condition of the pile, ends and selvages, this is workshop production rather than village work, and it will hold its shape and its detail for generations.