8'2" x 11'7" Persian Kashan Rug | Semi-Antique Floral Medallion | Raspberry Red & Graphite Black

This is the central Persian formula executed the way it is supposed to look: a raspberry red field packed edge to edge with scrolling vine, an ivory and blue medallion holding the center, and a deep graphite black border pulling the whole composition tight. It is hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation with a 3/8" pile that still stands full and even across the field, with no low spots and clean, original selvages and fringe visible in the close photographs. At 8'2" x 11'7" it falls at the generous end of the 8x11 Persian rugs class, long enough to carry a full seating group or a 8 chair table. Like all Persian Kashan rugs we sell, it ships with a certificate of authenticity recording origin, materials and measurements.

Design and Motifs

The drawing follows the classic Kashan medallion and corner layout. At the center sits a lobed 8 petal rosette in soft blue, ringed by ivory, then wrapped in a dark lobed cartouche with curling cloudband arms at top and bottom and small pendant finials reaching up and down the length of the field. Around it the field is filled with a dense all-over lattice of palmettes, serrated leaves, rosettes and tulip forms carried on fine curved vine, each motif outlined in ivory so it lifts cleanly off the red ground. The 4 corner spandrels repeat the medallion vocabulary in ivory, giving the eye an anchor at each end. The main border runs a continuous palmette and rosette meander on dark ground, with brown stem work linking the flowers, and it is framed by narrow guard stripes of small 4 petal blossoms in blue and rose on an ivory ribbon. Nothing here is improvised: the pattern mirrors correctly across both axes, and the corners resolve rather than being cut off, which is the mark of a cartoon followed properly.

A Raspberry Red Field Against Ivory and Graphite Black

The field reads as a cool raspberry crimson rather than a brick or tomato red, bright under direct light and settling into a deeper rose tone at an angle, which is typical of good Kashan wool with its natural luster. Against it the border is a near black graphite that holds a faint aubergine and navy cast where the light catches it, so the frame is dark without going flat. Ivory does the structural work, outlining the medallion, filling the spandrels and running through the guard stripes, and it is a warm oatmeal ivory rather than a bleached white. Inside the flowers you get the secondary palette that makes this rug worth looking at up close: sky and teal blue in the medallion rosette, olive and moss green in the leaves and palmette centers, shell pink, apricot and a soft camel brown in the vine work. It is a confident, saturated piece that will sit naturally alongside other red and burgundy Persian rugs, warm woods and dark furniture.

Kashan, Central Persia, and the Weave

Kashan sits in central Persia, north of Isfahan, and its weaving tradition goes back to the Safavid court workshops. The town's reputation rests on two things: soft, lustrous local wool that takes dye deeply and holds a sheen for decades, and a disciplined curvilinear drawing style built on the red field, dark lobed medallion and ivory spandrel formula you see here. It is also the most recognizable Persian design in the world: when you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. The back of this rug shows tight, regular knotting on a cotton warp and weft, with rows beaten down evenly and the pattern legible from the reverse, which is what you want to see before you buy. The combination of a fairly fine urban weave, a hefty 8'2" x 11'7" footprint and full remaining pile means this one has decades of service left in it under a dining table or in a main living room.