10' x 13'5" Persian Kashan Rug | Signed Black & Gold Allover Floral Medallion | Excellent Condition

Most Kashans come to us on a red ground, which is what makes this one worth stopping for. This signed Persian Kashan rug measures 10' x 13'5" and is hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation, with a near-black field that pushes every gold, ivory and pale blue flower forward instead of letting them sink into a warm background. The weaver signed the piece in a woven cartouche set into the border, which on a Kashan means a workshop piece rather than an anonymous bazaar commission. The pile stands a full 3/8" with even, unworn nap corner to corner, the selvedges are tight, and the condition grades Excellent. Every rug we ship carries a certificate of authenticity that records the origin, materials and dimensions.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a pale blue star medallion, its outline broken into fine points and filled with a small radiating rosette, ivory daisies, sage leaf forms and tiny red dots. Around it the field runs allover rather than open: curling saz leaves, hooked palmettes, split blossoms and bud sprays link along thin blue vines and repeat symmetrically on all 4 quarters, with two smaller pendant cartouches set above and below the medallion on the long axis. The frame is built from several bands, a wide main border of linked palmettes and rosettes flanked by pale blue and dark gold guard stripes, then narrow flowering vine bands that step out to the edge. Nothing here is angular village drawing; the lines curve the whole way, which is what separates a city Kashan from a tribal floral piece.

A Black Field Read in Dark Gold and Pale Blue

The ground reads black in most light and shows its deepest midnight cast where the sun hits it. Against that, the dominant accent is dark gold, running from a dull ochre in the border palmettes to a brighter honey in the blossom centers. The medallion and several of the guard bands are a soft periwinkle to powder blue, a cooler note that keeps the gold from turning the rug brassy. Ivory does the fine work: outlined daisies, the petal edges, the scrolling stems that trace the vine system. Smaller quantities of sage green, warm rust and a clear red appear as pinpoints inside the flower heads, visible in the close detail shots. The outer bands lighten to a sandy tan, so the rug frames itself and does not read as one solid dark rectangle from across a room.

Kashan Weaving and the Quality of This Piece

Kashan sits in central Persia north of Isfahan and has been weaving since the Safavid court workshops, on soft, lustrous local wool that takes dye deeply and holds a sheen for decades. It is also the design Americans see most often without naming it: when you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. This example carries the workshop hallmarks, a fine even knot across the width, crisp reserve between the black ground and the pale outlines, and a signature cartouche naming the weaver. At 10' x 13'5" it belongs among the larger 10x13 Persian rugs, big enough to sit all furniture legs on and still show field around the edges.