7'11" x 11'10" Persian Kashan Rug | Ivory Floral Medallion | Signed Cartouche

Most Kashans arrive in red. This one does not, and that is the whole point of it. The field is a pale ivory, the medallion and border are drawn in a soft blush taupe, and the entire classical vocabulary of a Persian Kashan rug is still there, simply rendered in a quiet palette that suits a modern room without giving up any of the formality. The weaver signed the piece with a cartouche woven into the upper border, which on a Kashan means a workshop piece rather than an anonymous commercial run. The 3/8" wool pile is even and full, the cotton foundation lies flat, and at 7'11" x 11'10" the rug falls into the range of large 8x12 Persian rugs that covers a full seating group. Condition is excellent and never used, and a certificate of authenticity ships with the rug.

Design and Motifs

The drawing follows the classic Kashan formula: a lobed central medallion with pointed pendants top and bottom, a matching pair of corner spandrels, and a field between them filled edge to edge with curved vine. Look closely at the medallion and it opens into layers, a small navy-outlined flowerhead at the very center, then a ring of cusped lobes, then an outer skirt of palmettes and curling leaves. The field is not empty around it. Every inch carries palmettes, split leaves, eight petal rosettes and slender flowering stems that mirror across both axes, the sort of density that only reads as calm because the ground color is so light. The main border runs a continuous procession of linked palmettes and blossoms on a blush ground, flanked by narrow guard stripes of ivory with small reciprocal blooms, and a further outer stripe of navy tipped leaves. The signature cartouche sits in the top border, drawn in dark navy script on ivory and framed by a lobed outline, the weaver's own mark left in plain sight.

Ivory Ground, Blush Border, Navy Drawing

The field is a warm ivory, closer to unbleached cream than to white, with the natural luster of Kashan wool giving it a faint sheen that shifts as you walk past. Against it, the medallion, spandrels and main border are worked in a muted blush taupe, a dusty pink-beige that carries the structure of the design without ever shouting. All of the fine drawing, the outlines of every palmette, the stems and the tendrils, is done in deep navy, which is what keeps the pattern legible at a distance. Inside the flowerheads you get the accent colors: powder blue in the small rosettes, an olive to moss green in the leaves, warm chocolate brown in the vine work, and tiny sparks of rust and terracotta at the center of scattered blossoms. There is no strong contrast anywhere in the rug, and that is deliberate. It reads as a neutral floor from across the room and only reveals its color range up close.

Kashan, Central Persia, and the Weave

Kashan sits in central Persia, north of Isfahan, and its weaving lineage runs straight back to the Safavid court workshops. The town's reputation rests on two things: soft, lustrous local wool that takes dye beautifully and holds a sheen for decades, and disciplined workshop drawing that keeps a curved medallion symmetrical over nearly 12 feet of length. Kashan is also the Persian rug most Americans have already seen without knowing its name. When you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. The back of this piece, shown against a ruler, tells the rest of the story: a tight, regular knot count on a cotton foundation, with the pattern as crisp on the reverse as on the face, which is the honest test of a well woven Kashan. The 3/8" pile has been left full, so the rug has body underfoot and the wear life of a piece that has never been put down.