6'10" x 10'5" Persian Kashan Rug | Burgundy Field, Sapphire Medallion | Circa 1970s

A city weave from the 1970s, this 6'10" x 10'5" Kashan is hand-knotted in fine wool on a cotton foundation and still carries full, heavy pile from selvage to selvage. The deep burgundy field is drawn edge to edge with curved vines, palmettes and small blossoms, and a sapphire and navy lobed medallion sits dead center with matching quarter medallions in the 4 corners. At just under 7 feet by 10 and a half, it is the classic dining and sitting room footprint, and it sizes up naturally against our other 7x10 Persian rugs. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The drawing is pure Kashan formula executed with an unusually busy hand. The central medallion is a lobed sapphire cartouche outlined in ivory and gold, filled with small rosettes and lotus heads, with pendants running off the top and bottom and a pair of long leaf finials reaching left and right. Around it the field never rests: split arabesque leaves, curled sickle leaves, single stem blossoms and paired palmettes all connect through a fine vine that keeps the pattern moving without ever repeating in an obvious grid. The 4 corner spandrels are navy, drawn as quarter versions of the medallion and edged in the same ivory outline so the eye reads a complete oval. The main border is navy with a turtle palmette and vine rhythm, flanked by sky blue guard stripes carrying alternating rose and burgundy rosettes, and the outermost minor stripes are tight enough that you can count the knots along them in the close-up photographs.

The Burgundy and Sapphire Palette

The field is a deep wine burgundy that shifts toward plum where the pile lies one way and toward true red where it lies the other, the abrash and luster you only get from good hand-spun wool. Against it the blues do all the work: a midnight navy in the border and spandrels, a clear sapphire in the medallion core, and a lighter sky blue in the guard stripes that lifts the whole rug. Ivory outlines every major motif, so the pattern stays legible instead of sinking into the dark ground, and warm gold runs through the arabesque leaves and the border palmettes. Softer accents fill in the detail work: salmon rose in the rosettes, dusty pink in the flower heads, olive and sage green in the leaves, and small touches of terracotta. It is a saturated, jewel-toned palette that reads rich in lamplight and settles down in daylight, and it sits comfortably with mahogany, walnut and brass.

Kashan: The Weaving Town and the Quality

Kashan sits in central Persia north of Isfahan, and its looms trace back to the Safavid court workshops that set the standard for the classical medallion rug. The town has always had two advantages: soft, lustrous local wool, and a workshop tradition that weaves from a drawn cartoon rather than from memory, which is why the curved lines here close so cleanly. This piece is a proper workshop weave, tightly knotted on cotton warps, with a dense pile that shows almost no wear in the photographs. It is also the most recognizable Persian design in America: when you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. If you want the background before you buy, read our guide to Persian Kashan rugs, and if you are curious how a 1970s weave is placed on the timeline, our notes on how to date an Oriental rug walk through the same tells we use on the bench.