8'2" x 11'8" Persian Kashan Rug | Signed Ivory All-Over Floral | Excellent Condition

This is a signed piece, and the cartouche woven into the border is the first thing worth pointing out, because most Persian Kashan rugs of this scale leave the loom unsigned. The weaver put a name in the guard band instead, which places it with a named workshop rather than an anonymous commercial run. The pile is a full 3/8" of fine wool on a cotton foundation, even from end to end with no low spots, and the ivory ground has held its clean tone rather than yellowing. At 8'2" x 11'8" it sits comfortably in the 8x11 to 8x12 range, the size most buyers want for a seating group, and you can compare it against our other 8x11 Persian rugs. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The drawing is classic Kashan: a lobed center medallion with a small finial at each end, matching quarter medallions in the 4 corners, and an all-over field of scrolling vine that runs right up under the medallion instead of stopping at it. Look closely at the center and you can follow a single vine splitting into paired curled leaves, then into palmettes, then into small 8 petal rosettes, repeated with mirror symmetry across both axes. The field never goes empty, yet the drawing stays legible because the weaver kept the vine line thin and let the blossoms carry the weight. The border system is 5 bands deep: a wide main border of alternating palmettes and cupped blossoms, flanked by narrow floral guards and a fine zigzag inner stripe that frames the field cleanly. The signature cartouche breaks one guard band near the end of the rug, outlined in navy against ivory, the way a workshop marks its own work.

The Ivory Ground and Its Accent Palette

The field reads as warm ivory, closer to unbleached cream than white, and it is the same tone in the border grounds, which is what gives the rug its quiet, almost monochrome look from across a room. Step onto it and the accents come forward: deep navy for the vine outlines and the medallion frame, a pale sky blue used for whole leaves and small blossom centers, olive and mustard gold in the palmettes, and small hits of rust, terracotta and brick red scattered as flower hearts. Those red notes are used sparingly, perhaps a few dozen across the whole field, and they are what keep the ivory from going flat. There is a faint silvery grey cast to the older blues where the wool has taken a light sheen, typical of a well kept piece of this type. If you are furnishing around neutrals, this belongs with our ivory and beige Persian rugs rather than the red-field classics.

Kashan, the Town and the Weave

Kashan sits in central Persia, north of Isfahan, and its looms trace back to the Safavid court workshops. The town built its reputation on soft, lustrous local wool and on precise curvilinear drawing, and the Kashan format is so familiar that when you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. This example shows the traits that matter: tight, regular knotting visible on the back, straight selvages, and a level pile that has not been shaved down to hide wear. The wool takes light the way good Kashan wool does, shifting a shade lighter or darker depending on which end you view it from. A signed, ivory-ground Kashan at 8'2" x 11'8" in this condition is not a piece that turns up often, and it will take decades of family traffic without complaint.