8'4" x 11'8" Persian Kashan Rug | Red Field, Ivory Medallion | Classic Workshop Floral Design

This is the Kashan formula executed the way the town built its reputation on: a deep red field drawn edge to edge with flowering vine, a lobed ivory and navy medallion set dead center, and 4 heavy navy corner spandrels that frame the whole composition. At 8'4" x 11'8" it is a true room-size piece, large enough to sit under a full seating group or a 10 seat table with the pattern still reading as one picture rather than a crop. The pile is 3/8" wool on a cotton foundation, hand-knotted in central Persia, and the condition is excellent with even pile from end to end and tight, straight selvages. Buyers who want to read more before deciding can study our guide to Persian Kashan rugs, and every rug we ship leaves with a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a small sky blue cartouche carrying an 8 petal rosette, ringed by an ivory band of stylized tulips and leaves, then by a navy lobed outline that breaks into pointed pendants at the top and bottom. Out of those pendants the field opens into a classic all-over arrangement: curling vines, palmettes, small shrubs and single rosettes, each stem drawn separately so no two repeats sit on top of each other. The navy spandrels are filled with ivory arabesque scrollwork that curls back on itself, a detail that only works when the drawing is disciplined. The main border is navy, running alternating palmettes and cupped flowers on a continuous vine, and it is flanked by a stack of narrow guard stripes, one in light blue with a vine meander, others in ivory with running rosettes, which is what gives the rug its layered, formal frame.

Colors in Detail

The ground is a true cherry red with a faint warm glow where the light crosses the pile, the shade that makes red Persian rugs so easy to build a room around. Against it, the borders and spandrels are a dark indigo navy that reads almost black at a distance and resolves into blue up close. Ivory does the structural work: the medallion core, the arabesques in the corners, and the thin outlines that separate every border band. Inside the flowers you get the smaller voices, a clear sky blue on the rosettes and buds, olive and sage green in the leafwork, soft gold and mustard on the palmette centers, and small touches of rose and salmon pink that keep the field from going cold. The overall effect is rich rather than busy, because the red carries roughly two thirds of the surface and everything else is detail.

Kashan Origin and Weave

Kashan sits in central Persia, north of Isfahan, and its weaving goes back to the Safavid court workshops of the 16th century. The town's local wool is soft and lustrous, which is why Kashan reds age into that deep glow instead of going flat, and the red field with navy lobed medallion and ivory spandrels is the formula the city is known for worldwide. It is also the rug most Americans have seen without knowing its name: when you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. The back of this piece shows the weave clearly, with small even knots, a straight regular grid and no pulling at the ends, the mark of a town workshop rather than a loose village loom, and the 3/8" pile has enough body to take daily traffic for decades.