12'8" x 21'8" Persian Kashan Rug | Tiger Orange Field, Ivory Medallion | Oversize Palace Piece

This is a true palace piece: 12'8" x 21'8" of hand-knotted wool on a cotton foundation, woven in the classic Kashan formula of a single ivory medallion floating on a tiger orange field inside a deep eggplant border. Pieces at this length are rare because the loom, the warp tension and the dye lots all have to hold steady for years of weaving, and this one holds together beautifully from end to end. The 3/8" pile is even across the whole surface, the sides and ends are sound, and the drawing stays crisp in the corners where big rugs usually go soft. It belongs in a ballroom, a long formal living room or a double-height great room, and it sits comfortably among the best oversize Persian rugs we carry. Every rug ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming origin, materials and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

The layout is the textbook Kashan composition, executed at a scale that most weavers never attempt. A lobed ivory medallion sits dead center, outlined in dark navy and finished top and bottom with a stepped pendant and a small finial. Inside it a tiny star rosette in teal and gold anchors a ring of pink, rust and olive blossoms. The field around it is not left open: it carries a dense all over floral lattice of palmettes, split leaves, 8 petal rosettes and curling arabesque vines that swing outward from the medallion and mirror perfectly across both axes. Four large corner spandrels in the same navy as the medallion frame the field and repeat its vocabulary in miniature, so the eye reads the rug as one continuous garden rather than a medallion dropped onto a background. The main border is a wide eggplant band of alternating palmettes and rosettes joined by a thin vinescroll, flanked by ivory and teal guard stripes that keep the heavy border from closing in on the field. Drawing this consistently across 21'8" of length takes a cartoon prepared for the exact loom width and weavers disciplined enough to follow it for years.

Tiger Orange, Eggplant and the Full Palette

The field is a warm tiger orange with a rose undertone, closer to terracotta than to brick, and it shifts slightly with the light and with the direction of the pile, which is exactly what a good wool dye does. Against it the border reads eggplant purple, a dark aubergine that goes almost black in shadow and opens up to plum and violet where the light catches the pile, as seen clearly in the border close-up. The medallion and the spandrel grounds are ivory with a soft cream cast, and inside them the floral work runs through teal blue, sage and olive green, dusty rose, soft pink, saffron gold and a few small notes of deep red. The outer guard band is a pale sky blue that lifts the whole edge and keeps the dark border from reading heavy. There is no synthetic brightness anywhere in the palette; the greens are muted, the pinks are chalky rather than hot, and the balance of warm orange field against cool purple and blue framing is what gives the rug its depth across such a long floor.

Kashan: The Weaving City and the Quality of the Work

Kashan sits in central Persia north of Isfahan, and its looms trace back to the Safavid court workshops that set the standard for the curved line medallion carpet. The city's advantage has always been its wool, soft and lustrous, which takes dye deeply and holds a sheen for generations underfoot, and the local habit of weaving on a tight cotton foundation that keeps a rug flat and square even at palace length. It is also the most recognizable Persian design in America: when you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. The back of this piece shows a fine, regular knot line with the pattern fully legible from behind, which is the honest test of a well woven city rug, and the selvages and ends are intact with clean ivory fringe. If you want the history and the workshop detail behind this weave, our guide to Persian Kashan rugs covers how the city's designs, dyes and knot counts developed.