7'1" x 11'9" Persian Kashan Rug | Ivory Floral Medallion | Semi-Antique, Excellent Condition

This is a semi-antique ivory Kashan measuring 7'1" x 11'9", one of the most usable room sizes in a Persian rug and one of the hardest to find in a light ground. The field is a soft unbleached ivory, the medallion and borders sit in tan and taupe, and the whole surface is drawn in a curved, flowing floral style rather than anything angular. The pile is a dense 3/8" wool on a cotton foundation, still full across the field and with clean, tightly bound ends and sides, which is why the condition reads excellent rather than worn. Handled in person it lies flat and heavy, the way a well woven city rug should. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming it is hand-knotted and Persian in origin.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a round rosette medallion with a pale celadon and ivory ground, ringed by a lobed frame of small leaves and buds, with a taupe pendant reaching out along the long axis at each end. From there the ivory field opens into an all-over arabesque of thin vine scroll carrying palmettes, serrated boteh leaves, lotus heads and small 8 petal rosettes, all mirrored precisely top to bottom and left to right. Taupe corner spandrels close off the 4 corners of the field and are filled with their own vine work plus the yellow outlined curling cloudband that Kashan weavers use to finish a corner. The main border is a wide tan to taupe band of alternating palmettes and standing lotus flowers linked by a continuous meandering vine, flanked on both sides by ivory guard stripes of small blossoms and a fine outer reciprocal sawtooth. Nothing in the drawing is crowded, which is the clearest sign of a careful cartoon and an experienced weaver.

Color Palette

The dominant reading is ivory and tan, which puts this rug squarely in the territory buyers searching beige and ivory Persian rugs are after. The field is a warm cream with a slight buttery cast, while the medallion ground, spandrels and main border move into a mushroom taupe that photographs grey in some light and sandy brown in others. Inside that neutral frame the smaller details do the work: navy outlines every vine and leaf, a lighter periwinkle blue fills the larger border palmettes, olive and moss green shade the leaves, and raspberry rose and soft pink pick out the flower centers. Brown appears in the stems and in the shading of the palmettes, with occasional touches of saffron gold, teal and ivory highlight. The close-up photographs show the full range clearly, while the full-length shots show how quietly the rug reads from standing height, more neutral texture than pattern.

Kashan Origin and Weaving Quality

Kashan sits in central Persia, north of Isfahan, and its workshops trace their drawing and their weaving discipline back to the Safavid court tradition. Persian Kashan rugs are known for soft lustrous local wool, a dense symmetrical knot and exactly this medallion and corner formula, usually on a red ground, which makes an ivory ground example like this one noticeably less common. If you watch Shark Tank, there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. On this piece the back shows a tight, even knot count with no slack rows and no drift in the border lines across nearly 12 feet of length, and the 3/8" pile has been clipped low enough to keep the fine vine work legible. That combination of low clipped dense wool, cotton foundation and disciplined drawing is what separates a workshop Kashan from a village copy, and it is the reason these rugs stay in use for generations.