6'7" x 10'1" Persian Kashan Rug | Wool | Ivory and Blue

A hand-knotted wool rug from Persia, 6'7" x 10'1" and rectangular. At a glance it reads pale: an ivory field covered edge to edge in fine vinework, a broad taupe-brown border around it, and a single lobed medallion in the middle that is barely darker than the ground it sits on. The drawing is small in scale, and most of the contrast in the rug comes from the indigo outlines rather than from large blocks of colour.

Design

The Kashan layout here is the familiar one, drawn with a light hand. A lobed medallion with stepped cresting and long pendants sits at the centre, filled with its own small rosettes and palmettes, and the four corner spandrels repeat its outline in the same taupe. Between them the field runs an all-over scroll of thin stems carrying rosettes, carnation heads, bud forms and curled leaves, each one outlined in dark blue so the pattern stays legible against the ivory. The main border carries alternating palmettes and serrated leaves, with a guard stripe of ivory and small blue trefoils on each side. One stretch of the border, shown in the close photograph, breaks into a cartouche with a woven inscription in it.

Colour

The ground is a warm ivory with a faint cream cast, and the medallion, spandrels and border field are a pale taupe-brown that sits only a shade above it. Against those two quiet tones the blue does the work: dark indigo for the outlines and the smaller flowerheads, a soft sky blue for petals and for the inner guard stripes. Olive green appears in the leaves, with small points of madder red, rust-orange, teal and black scattered through the vine. Nothing is loud, and the overall impression at a distance is of a greyed ivory carpet with blue drawing running through it.

Making

The rug is hand-knotted with a wool pile. The back photograph shows a close, even grid of knots with the pattern reading clearly from the reverse, and the pile is clipped low enough to hold the fine detail of the flowerheads. It dates from the 2000's, which places it among semi-antique stock, and the condition is listed as excellent, with full pile and intact ivory selvedges and fringe in the photographs.