11'1" x 15'3" Persian Kashan Rug | Red Field, Navy Floral Medallion | Signed Oversize

This is a signed room-filling Kashan, 11'1" x 15'3" of hand-knotted wool on a cotton foundation, with a weaver's cartouche worked into the light blue guard border along one end. The drawing is the classic Kashan formula carried out at full scale: a deep red field, a lobed navy and ivory medallion anchoring the center, matching ivory spandrels at the 4 corners, and a wide navy main border that frames the whole piece. At this footprint it sits in the oversize Persian rugs group, the size that covers a large living room or a long dining table with the chairs pulled out. The pile is a full 3/8", clean and evenly worn across the field, and every rug we ship leaves with a certificate of authenticity recording its size, origin, materials and knotting.

Design and Motifs

The field is a continuous floral lattice rather than an open ground: thin vines run corner to corner carrying rosettes, palmettes, serrated leaves and small budding sprays, so there is almost no bare red anywhere. At the center sits a stepped, lobed medallion built in layers, a navy outer ring of flowering vine, an ivory inner cartouche carrying an 8 petal rosette, and a sky blue core with a single red and ivory flower head at the middle. Slim navy pendants extend above and below the medallion and terminate in small palmette finials. The 4 corner spandrels repeat that ivory ground and its floral scrollwork, cutting clean stepped outlines against the red. The main border is navy, filled with alternating palmettes and rosettes joined by an undulating vine, and it is fenced on both sides by narrow reciprocating guard stripes in light blue and ivory. The signature cartouche in image 4 breaks that light blue guard band, drawn as a crescent around a red and blue star with Farsi script inside, the mark of the weaver or workshop that put this one on the loom.

Color: Deep Red, Indigo Navy and Ivory

The field red is a warm tomato red with a slight brick undertone, saturated rather than orange, and it reads darker under lamplight than it does in daylight. Against it the navy is close to indigo, used for the medallion surround, the pendants and the whole main border, which gives the rug its strong outer frame. Ivory does the lifting work: the spandrels, the medallion's inner cartouche and the guard stripes are all soft cream, and that is what keeps the density of the field from feeling heavy. Inside the medallion a clear sky blue appears, the lightest note in the rug, and the same blue repeats in the outer guard band where the signature sits. Scattered through the floral vines are olive and moss green leaves, dusty rose and salmon flower heads, small touches of gold, and cream blossoms outlined in fine dark wool. The palette is traditional and warm, and it sits comfortably with mahogany and walnut furniture, brass, and cream or oatmeal walls.

Kashan: The Town and the Weave

Kashan sits in central Persia, north of Isfahan, and its looms trace back to the Safavid court workshops. The town's reputation rests on soft lustrous local wool and on the formula you see here, a red field, a navy lobed medallion and ivory spandrels, drawn with a curved, disciplined line rather than village angles. It is also the most recognizable Persian rug in American living rooms: when you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. The back of this piece, shown against a ruler in the last photo, is tight and regular, with clearly defined rows and no slack, which is what lets an 11'1" x 15'3" rug hold its rectangle over a room this size. If you want the full background on the town, its masters and how the grades differ, read our guide to Persian Kashan rugs before you buy.