11'4" x 16'1" Persian Kashan Rug | Ivory Floral Medallion | Signed Workshop Piece

At 11'4" x 16'1" this is a true room-filling floor piece, hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation in Kashan, central Persia, during the 2000's. The weaver signed the work in a small cartouche set into the end border, which is the mark of a workshop rug rather than an anonymous commercial run, and the drawing carries that out: a single lobed medallion anchoring an ivory field that is packed, corner to corner, with fine floral vinework. Pieces of this footprint are hard to find in a light ground, because pale fields show every inch of the weaver's line, and there is nowhere to hide sloppy drawing across 16 feet. If you have been comparing oversize Persian rugs for a large formal room, this one covers the ground without the visual weight of a dark field. Every rug we sell leaves Freeport with our certificate of authenticity, and this size, heavy as it is, still ships free in all 50 states.

Design and Motifs

The layout is the classic Kashan formula read in reverse: instead of a dark medallion on red, a soft blue-grey lobed medallion with pendant finials floats at center on ivory, ringed by a wreath of small rosettes and a single red 8 petal flower at its core. Around it the field runs as a dense all-over of curling arabesque vine, Shah Abbasi palmettes, split leaves and tiny 5 petal blossoms, with 4 quartered corner spandrels repeating the medallion's palette so the eye reads the composition as one piece rather than four corners plus a middle. The framing is a 5 band system: a wide main border of linked palmettes and vine scroll, flanked by narrow floral guard stripes and finished with a thin outer stripe that keeps the whole thing crisp. Look at the close-ups and you can follow individual vine tendrils outlined in navy, one knot wide, which is the detail that separates real Kashan workshop drawing from a copy.

The Ivory, Green and Blue Palette

The ground is a warm ivory that reads closer to cream than white, and in the angled photograph it takes on a faint oatmeal cast where the light rakes across the pile. Against that ground the weaver worked a restrained but genuinely varied palette: apple and sage green in the leaves and stem work, navy for outlines and border grounds, a pale denim blue in the medallion, spandrels and cartouche, and cocoa brown through the heavier vines. The flower heads supply the small amounts of warmth, brick red, dusty rose and a little ochre, each one no bigger than a thumbnail, so the overall impression stays quiet and pale. That balance is what makes it work in a bright room: it belongs with the beige and ivory rugs that sit under light upholstery, while the green and blue give it enough color to stand on its own on a bare wood floor.

Kashan: The Town and the Weave

Kashan sits in central Persia, north of Isfahan, and its looms descend directly from the Safavid court workshops, which is why Persian Kashan rugs are the pieces most people picture when they picture a Persian rug. When you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. The town's reputation rests on two things: soft, lustrous local wool that takes dye cleanly and holds a sheen for decades, and a tight, evenly beaten weave on a cotton foundation that keeps large formats flat and true. You can see both in the ruler shot, where the knot rows run straight and uniform across the border, and in the pile itself, which is clipped low enough to keep the fine vinework legible. A signed cartouche on a piece this large means a master oversaw the loom from start to finish, and that a single hand carried the drawing the full 16 feet without the pattern drifting.