8'7" x 12'2" Persian Kashan Rug | Ivory Field All Over Floral | Signed Cartouche

This 8'7" x 12'2" Kashan is a workshop rug, and it tells you so twice: once in the drawing, which holds its symmetry across more than 12 feet of length without a wobble, and once in the small navy cartouche woven into the upper border. Instead of the usual central medallion, the weaver filled the ivory ground edge to edge with curling vine, palmettes and rosettes, so the pattern reads as a continuous garden and the rug can be turned or shifted under furniture without losing its center. The pile is fine wool on a cotton foundation, clipped low enough to keep the outlines crisp, and the wool still has the dry lustre good Kashan fleece is known for. It is a natural fit for rooms planned around 9x12 Persian rugs, with a little extra length to work with. A certificate of authenticity ships with the rug.

Design and Motifs

The field is a classic all over floral design, built on a hidden diamond lattice of thin arabesque stems that meet in small blossom nodes down the center line. At each meeting point sits a round rosette, some in rust orange with an ivory star center, others in mustard gold or layered blues, and between them the weaver worked lanceolate leaves, tiny 5 petal blossoms, split palmettes and the curling cloud-band scrolls that Kashan draftsmen use to keep an all over field from turning into wallpaper. The wide main border runs a reciprocal vine with alternating palmettes and rosettes, flanked by narrow guard stripes: an ivory meander band on the inside, a fine navy and gold ribbon on the outside, plus a dentil stripe that outlines the field on all 4 sides. Corner resolutions are handled properly, with the border vine turning cleanly rather than being cut off, which is one of the quickest ways to separate workshop drawing from village copying.

A Study in Blue on Ivory

The ground is a warm ivory, closer to unbleached cream than white, and it does most of the work of making the rug feel light in a large room. Against it the blues do the drawing: deep navy for the vine outlines and the darkest rosette petals, a mid cornflower blue for leaves and blossom hearts, and a pale sky blue used almost as a highlighter on petal tips. The main border shifts to a soft powder blue with a faintly sage or celadon cast, so the frame reads cooler and greyer than the field and the whole piece settles rather than shouts. Warm notes are placed sparingly and deliberately: rust orange and terracotta in the ring rosettes, mustard gold in the palmettes and the border ribbon, a little olive and sage in the leafwork, and the occasional pin-point of rose or dark red in a flower center. Under the low pile the wool takes light differently from each direction, which makes the ivory shift between cream and pale sand as you walk around it.

Kashan: Central Persia and the Workshop Tradition

Kashan sits in central Persia, north of Isfahan, and its weaving reputation goes back to the Safavid court workshops that set the standard for curved-line floral drawing. The town kept that workshop model alive: designs drawn on paper by a professional draftsman, wool selected for its softness and lustre, and a knot fine enough to carry a flowing vine instead of a stepped approximation of one. That is the tradition this rug belongs to, and the signed cartouche means an identifiable shop stood behind it rather than an anonymous commission. Kashan is also the most familiar Persian city rug in American rooms, and the most photographed: when you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. If you want the fuller background on the town, the wool and the standard formulas, our guide to Persian Kashan rugs covers it in detail, and the back of this piece (shown against a ruler) tells the rest of the story in knot count and evenness of weave.