10' x 13'7" Persian Kashan Rug | Red Field with Navy Medallion | 1980s Wool, Perfect Condition

This is a textbook room-size Kashan from the 1980s, woven in central Persia on a cotton foundation with a full, glossy wool pile that still stands up tall when you run a hand across it. At 10' x 13'7" it covers a true dining or living space wall to wall, and because it was drawn at the generous end of the 10x14 Persian rugs range, the medallion sits properly centered rather than crowded. The wool has the soft, slightly waxy handle that good Kashan fleece develops over 40 years, the ivory warp fringe is intact at both ends, and the selvages are tight. Every rug ships with our certificate of authenticity confirming origin, materials and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

The drawing follows the classic Kashan formula without cutting a single corner. A navy lobed medallion with stepped shoulders anchors the center, framed by ivory cartouches and a sky-blue inner rosette built from an 8 petal flower head. Around it the red field is filled edge to edge with curling vine scroll, palmettes, cypress buds and small ivory and blue blossoms, so there is no dead ground anywhere. The 4 corner spandrels repeat the navy of the medallion and mirror its floral vocabulary, which is what gives the rug its symmetry when you stand at either end. The border system runs three deep: a wide navy main band of alternating palmettes and rosettes, a light blue secondary band carrying its own vine, and narrow ivory guard stripes that keep the whole composition crisp. The detail photos show how finely the outlines are drawn, with yellow and ivory contour lines separating each motif from the red ground.

Color Palette

The field is a deep true red, closer to cherry than brick, and it reads warm under lamplight and slightly cooler in daylight. Against it sits a dark indigo navy used for the medallion, the spandrels and the main border, with a second clear sky blue in the medallion core and the secondary border that lifts the whole palette and keeps the navy from going heavy. Ivory does the structural work: guard stripes, cartouches, vine outlines and the fringe at both ends. Inside the flower heads you find the smaller notes that date a good Kashan, soft pink and salmon petals, muted bottle green leaves, gold and saffron yellow stems, and touches of camel brown. Because these are wool dyes with age on them, the colors have settled into each other rather than shouting, and the rug sits comfortably with red, navy, cream or dark wood rooms.

Kashan Origin and Weaving Quality

Kashan sits in central Persia, north of Isfahan, and its looms trace back to the Safavid court workshops, which is why the city's weavers still default to a formal medallion-and-vine layout rather than village geometry. The local wool is soft and unusually lustrous, and Kashan weavers traditionally pair it with a cotton foundation and a tight, even knot that holds curved lines cleanly, exactly what you see in the unbroken sweep of the medallion outline here. If you want the full background on the city, its workshops and how to judge a piece, read our guide to Persian Kashan rugs. This is also the design most Americans have already seen without knowing it: when you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. On a rug this size, that balance of formal drawing and durable wool is the whole point, it is dressy enough for a dining room and tough enough to live under a table.