10' x 13' Persian Kashan Rug | Deep Red Field with Navy Lobed Medallion | Signed by the Weaver

A signed rug is a rug the weaver was willing to put a name on, and the cartouche woven into the upper border of this piece (photographed close up in green, ivory and red) tells you it left a proper workshop rather than a village loom. It is a textbook example of what collectors look for in Persian Kashan rugs: a deep red field drawn edge to edge with floral vinework, a navy lobed medallion with an ivory heart, matching navy spandrels in all 4 corners, and a wide navy main border carried between ivory guard stripes. Hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation, the pile is still full and even, the sides and ends are intact, and the condition reads as excellent with no restoration. At 10' x 13' it covers a true room-size footprint, which puts it squarely among the 10x13 Persian rugs buyers shop when a sofa group or a 10 seat table has to sit entirely on the rug. Every rug we ship travels with a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The drawing follows the classic Kashan formula without shortcuts. At dead center sits an 8 petal rosette inside an ivory cartouche, framed by a stepped navy lobed medallion filled with its own small palmettes, serrated leaves and blossoms. Slender pendants extend from the medallion top and bottom into the field, and the red ground around it is not left open: it carries a dense all-over scheme of scrolling vines, rosettes, tulip forms and fan palmettes that mirror each other across both the long and short axis. The 4 corner spandrels repeat the medallion palette in navy with ivory outlining, so the field reads as a cleanly cut lobed oval. The main border runs navy with a steady palmette and vine chain, bracketed by narrow ivory stripes of meandering buds and a final red outer stripe. The detail photos show how tightly the small motifs are articulated, with individual petals and leaf tips resolved in single rows of knots.

The Red, Navy, Ivory and Green Palette

The field is a deep madder-toned red that shifts slightly warmer or cooler depending on which way the pile is brushed, the quality that makes red Persian rugs so forgiving under lamplight. Against it the medallion, spandrels and main border are worked in a dark indigo navy that reads almost black at a distance and opens up into blue when you kneel over it. Ivory does the structural work, outlining the medallion, filling its center and running as thin guard stripes that keep the border from crowding the field. The secondary colors are where this rug earns its interest: olive and sage green in the leaves and rosette cores, a clear sky blue in the inner border and in scattered blossoms, soft rose and salmon in the flower heads, and small accents of gold and brown. Nothing is faded or run, and the whites are still bright rather than oxidized.

Kashan: The Town and the Weave

Kashan sits in central Persia, north of Isfahan, and its looms trace back to the Safavid court workshops that first set the medallion and spandrel layout the whole rug world later copied. The local wool is soft and lustrous, which is why a Kashan picks up light the way it does, and the town's weavers are known for keeping curved lines true across a large field rather than letting the vine drift. This is the design most Americans have seen without knowing its name: when you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. On the back you can see the knotting is regular and compact, with no abrash blocks or loose rows, and the woven cartouche in the top border puts this piece in workshop rather than commercial territory. For a 10' x 13' rug at this age and condition, that combination of signature, even weave and unfaded color is what separates a keeper from a filler.