8'2" x 11'8" Persian Kashan Rug | Red Field Floral Medallion | Excellent Condition

This is the textbook central Persian town weave, and it is executed with the discipline the name deserves. Measuring 8'2" x 11'8", the rug is hand-knotted entirely in wool on a cotton foundation, clipped to a close 3/8" pile that keeps every curved line legible. The drawing is formal and symmetrical, the wool has the soft surface sheen you see in image 5, and the weave sits flat and square with full original ends and sides. Good Persian Kashan rugs in this size are the single most useful format we sell, large enough to anchor a full seating group yet still fitting rooms where a 9x12 crowds the walls. It ships with a certificate of authenticity listing origin, materials, size and knotting.

Design and Motifs

A lobed, stepped medallion sits dead center, outlined in deep indigo and opening into an ivory cartouche that frames a single blue 8 petal rosette, with small vase-like pendants reaching from the top and bottom tips. Around it the field is packed with curling arabesque vines, serrated leaves, palmettes and rosettes, laid out in exact mirror halves on both axes so nothing drifts. The 4 corners carry ivory spandrels filled with scrolling vinework and their own small palmettes, which lifts the drawing away from the dark medallion and gives the eye a place to rest. Framing all of it is a wide navy main border of linked rosettes joined by a continuous vine, set between narrow ivory and blue guard stripes of meandering flowerheads, with a final slim red outer stripe. The corner detail in image 3 shows how cleanly the border pattern turns, which is the quickest tell of a workshop cartoon followed properly rather than improvised at the corners.

Color Palette

The field reads as a warm tomato to brick red, bright but not acid, and it carries the slight tonal movement that natural dye lots give across a long weave. Against it the medallion and main border are a very dark indigo that goes almost black where the pile falls away from the light, which is exactly what makes red and burgundy Persian rugs of this type sit so well with dark wood and leather. Ivory does the structural work, appearing in the medallion center, the 4 spandrels and the guard stripes, and keeps the whole piece from going heavy. Inside the flowers you get olive and sage green leaves, soft rose and salmon pinks, mid blue rosette hearts, and small touches of gold and camel. The reverse, shown with a ruler in image 6, confirms clear individual knot nodes and the same clean reds, blues and ivories running straight through to the back.

Kashan Origin and Weaving Quality

Kashan lies in central Persia, north of Isfahan, and its looms trace back to the Safavid court workshops of the 16th and 17th centuries. The town kept that formula alive into the modern era: a red field, a navy lobed medallion, ivory spandrels, and soft lustrous local wool that takes dye deeply and polishes with use. It is also the most recognizable Persian design in America, the one hiding in plain sight in countless rooms; when you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. Technically this piece behaves the way a good Kashan should, with an even tight weave, a short pile that holds the fine floral drawing crisp, firm selvages and a flat lie straight off the roll. At 8'2" x 11'8" it is a true room-size weave that will take decades of daily traffic without losing its line.