10'6" x 13'9" Persian Kashan Rug | Ivory All Over Floral Field | Signed Cartouche

This is a signed, room filling Persian Kashan rug in an unusually calm ivory palette, hand-knotted in fine wool on a cotton foundation and finished in excellent, never used condition. At 10'6" x 13'9" it belongs with the true 10x14 Persian Kashan rugs, a scale that covers a formal seating group or a long dining table without the field looking crowded. The pile is dense and evenly clipped, the selvedges are tight, and the back shows the regular, upright knotting of a workshop piece rather than village work, with a small script cartouche woven into the border where the weaver signed the rug. Every piece we ship leaves Freeport with a certificate of authenticity recording origin, materials and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

Instead of the familiar lobed center medallion, the weaver chose an all over floral composition that repeats evenly from end to end. Thin navy vines run the length of the field in mirrored pairs, each turn producing a large Shah Abbasi palmette, a crisp 8 petal rosette or a long curling saz leaf with a serrated edge. Between the big blossoms sit small four petal flowers, buds and paired rosettes that fill the ground without muddying it, and the drawing stays symmetrical along both axes, which is the clearest sign of a cartoon drawn by a professional designer. The border system is deep: a wide main border of linked rosettes and vine on a pale blue ground, flanked by two floral guard stripes on each side and a fine outer reciprocal stripe, so the field is framed by 5 separate bands. Because there is no medallion and no spandrel, furniture can sit anywhere on this rug and nothing important disappears under a sofa.

The Ivory, Sky Blue and Gold Palette

The field reads as a soft, slightly greenish ivory, closer to old parchment than to bright white, and it is that ground color that makes the rug so easy to live with. Over it the weaver worked in two distinct blues: a pale sky blue used for leaf bodies, small stars and the main border ground, and a deep navy that outlines the vines and fills the centers of the larger palmettes. Warm tones carry the pattern: mustard and antique gold in the rosette petals, brick rust and terracotta at the flower hearts, quiet olive green in the leaf tips, and touches of soft rose and dusty pink that only appear once you are close to the pile. A few small blossoms are picked out in undyed ivory wool, which lifts them off the field. The overall effect belongs with ivory and beige Persian rugs rather than the red and navy Kashans most buyers picture, and it suits pale walls, oak floors and blue upholstery particularly well.

Kashan: Court Weaving in Central Persia

Kashan sits in central Persia, north of Isfahan, and its looms trace back to the Safavid court workshops that set the standard for floral drawing four centuries ago. The town has two lasting advantages: soft, lustrous local wool that takes dye cleanly and holds a sheen underfoot, and an unbroken workshop culture in which designers draw the cartoon and experienced weavers follow it knot by knot. That is why a Kashan of this size stays square, keeps its border proportions consistent around all 4 corners, and ages into a glow rather than going dull. It is also the most recognizable Persian design in America; when you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. The signed cartouche on this piece places it firmly in that workshop tradition, and the weave on the reverse, fine, even and tightly packed, confirms a weaver who was paid for accuracy rather than speed.