8'2" x 11'8" Persian Kashan Rug | Ivory Field, Grey Medallion, Blue Borders | Signed by the Weaver

This is the quieter side of the Kashan tradition: instead of the familiar deep red ground, this Persian Kashan rug was drawn on an ivory field with a soft taupe-grey medallion and pale blue borders, which is why it settles into a room rather than taking it over. It measures 8'2" x 11'8", a true room size that covers a seating group or sits comfortably under a 6 to 8 seat dining table, and it sits in the sweet spot of our large Persian rugs. The pile is fine wool on a cotton foundation, the weave is tight and even across the whole field, and the weaver signed the piece in a woven cartouche set into the border, which tells you this came off a workshop loom and not a village one. Condition is excellent, with full even pile, straight sides and original fringe. Every rug we ship includes our certificate of authenticity recording origin, materials, size and knotting.

Design and Motifs

The layout is the classic central medallion formula executed with real drawing discipline. A lobed, cusped medallion sits dead centre, outlined in dark navy, with stepped hooks at each of the 4 sides and slender pendants reaching north and south. Inside it, a cream cartouche frames an 8 petal rosette with a single red centre, ringed by small navy and olive blossoms. The ivory field around it is not left open: it is filled edge to edge with a fine allover scroll of vines, curled split leaves, palmettes and small rosettes, so dense that the pattern reads as texture from standing height and as individual flowers when you kneel down. The 4 corner spandrels repeat the medallion's taupe ground and flower cluster, which pulls the design together diagonally. Framing all of it is a wide main border of palmettes linked by a running vine, flanked by narrow guard stripes of reciprocal motifs and a fine ivory meander, with the signature cartouche worked into one of the pale bands. Nothing in the drawing is rushed, and the border corners resolve cleanly, a detail that separates a workshop Kashan from a copy.

A Soft Ivory, Grey and Blue Palette

The ground is a warm ivory, closer to unbleached cream than to white, and it carries the faint natural lustre of good Kashan wool. Over it the medallion and spandrels are worked in a mushroom taupe-grey that shifts toward pale stone where the light hits the pile. The borders are where the blue lives: a soft powder blue in the guard bands, deepening to slate and almost navy in the fine outlines and in the small blossoms along the main border, with thin olive green separating lines holding the bands apart. The floral detail is drawn in a mix of clay rust, brick red, chocolate brown, olive and two or three tones of blue, each flower small enough that the reds register as pinpoints of warmth rather than as a dominant colour. The overall effect is a neutral, light rug with real depth in its shadows, which makes it easy in grey, cream, oatmeal or navy interiors where a red field would fight the furniture. Buyers hunting ivory Persian rugs usually give up the drawing quality to get the palette, and this one does not ask for that trade.

Kashan: Central Persia and the Workshop Weave

Kashan sits in central Persia, north of Isfahan, and its looms trace back to the Safavid court workshops that set the standard for curved line floral drawing. The town's reputation rests on two things: soft lustrous local wool that takes dye beautifully and holds a low even clip, and a cartoon tradition precise enough that medallions, spandrels and borders meet correctly in a room size rug. The back of this piece shows exactly that discipline, with small tight Persian knots in straight, regular rows and the pattern legible from the reverse, which is the honest test of a good weave. It is also the single most recognisable Persian design in American interiors; when you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. If you want to compare this one against other pieces from the same town, our Persian Kashan rugs collection runs from small accent sizes up through oversize, but a signed 8'2" x 11'8" example in this pale palette is the kind of rug that does not come back around often.