10'4" x 14'9" Persian Kashan Rug | Open Tomato Red Field | Navy Floral Medallion

This is the classic Kashan formula worked at generous room scale: a wide open field of warm tomato red, a deep navy lobed medallion floating dead center, and heavily drawn corner spandrels that pull the eye back to the middle. The pile is 3/8" wool on a cotton foundation, dense and evenly clipped, with the low even nap that lets the drawing stay crisp across nearly 15 feet of length. Everything in the field is deliberate restraint, which is why this piece reads as calm rather than busy despite the sheer amount of detail packed into the medallion and border. At 10'4" x 14'9" it belongs in the category of genuinely oversize Persian rugs that anchor a full seating group with wood to spare. Condition is excellent, and the rug ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming origin, materials and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

The center medallion is a lobed, pointed oval built in layers: an ivory cruciform core holding a single red and turquoise rosette, then concentric rings of curling arabesque vine, lotus heads, saffron palmettes and small serrated leaves, all outlined in ivory so the drawing separates cleanly from the navy ground. Pendant finials extend above and below, each one a miniature repeat of the medallion in the same palette, and a small cypress-shaped cresting sits at the very tip. Four corner spandrels mirror the medallion's density and step inward with scalloped ivory outlines, leaving the open field to do the work in between. That field is not entirely bare: slender navy and turquoise flowering sprays, botehs and tiny ivory blossoms drift out from the medallion and spandrels, a detail that separates a properly drawn Kashan from a plain-ground copy. The main border is a navy palmette and vine band, broken by rosettes in rust, ivory and soft green, and it is framed on both sides by turquoise-blue guard stripes and a narrow ivory meander, a 5 band border system in total.

The Tomato Red and Navy Palette

The field is a warm tomato red, a shade with more orange in it than the cooler madder reds of Sarough or the brick reds of village weaving, and because the ground is open you see the wool's natural abrash: gentle horizontal variation across the width that proves hand-dyed yarn and gives the surface depth instead of flatness. Against it the medallion and border read almost black-blue at a glance, but the close-up shows a true indigo navy carrying a full secondary palette inside it: rust orange, soft saffron gold, olive green, clear turquoise, ivory and a pale sky blue in the smaller blossoms. The turquoise guard stripes are the quiet surprise of the rug, cooling the transition between the red field and the dark border. Ivory does the structural work throughout, outlining every vine and lobe so the pattern stays legible from standing height. Warm reds with navy anchors sit comfortably with walnut and mahogany furniture, brass and antique gold, and cream or oatmeal walls.

Kashan: Weaving Town and Quality

Kashan sits in central Persia, north of Isfahan, and its looms trace back to the Safavid court workshops that produced some of the greatest carpets ever made. The town's reputation rests on three things: soft lustrous local wool, disciplined curvilinear drawing, and the red field with navy lobed medallion and ivory spandrels that became the single most recognized formula in Persian weaving. It is the rug people picture when they picture a Persian rug, and when you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. This example is a workshop-quality town piece rather than village work: the medallion is symmetrical on both axes, the vine work resolves properly into the corners, and the back shown against the ruler reveals a tight, regular knot with well-packed wefts. If you want the background on how these are built and graded, our Persian Kashan rugs guide covers the weave, the dyes and what to look for.