8'9" x 11'9" Antique Persian Kashan Rug | Ivory Field Medallion | Indigo Floral Borders

This 8'9" x 11'9" antique Kashan is the central Persian formula worked at full room scale: one lobed medallion set on an open ivory ground, deep corner spandrels, and a wide indigo border carrying the pattern all the way around. The drawing is old school and confident, with the vine work meeting cleanly at every axis, and the wool has taken on the quiet, slightly waxy sheen that only decades of use and light give a good Kashan pile. It reads as one of the more collectible Persian Kashan rugs in this format, and at a true 9x12 Persian rug footprint it anchors a full seating group without crowding the walls. Every piece we ship travels with a certificate of authenticity recording origin, materials and knot construction.

Design and Motifs

A large scalloped medallion sits dead center, filled with a tight mesh of small palmettes and curling leaves rather than a plain ground, so the eye keeps finding detail the longer it stays. Above and below it, pendant finials taper into the ivory field, and the 4 corners repeat the same dense floral packing in mirrored spandrels. The field between medallion and border is not left quiet: it is covered with scrolling vinework, cypress-like leaf forms, rosettes and curved arabesques that connect corner to corner in a single continuous system. The main border runs a classic turtle palmette and vine rhythm, flanked by 2 narrower guard stripes of 8 petal star rosettes and reciprocal scroll, and the whole thing is closed by a fine barber-pole outer stripe. Nothing is filler; each repeat is drawn out and finished, which is exactly what separates workshop weaving from village copies.

Color: Ivory Ground, Terracotta Medallion, Indigo Frame

The field is a warm ivory that has mellowed toward oatmeal and antique cream, and it carries the whole composition by giving the floral work room to breathe. The medallion is terracotta shading to a soft brick rust, outlined and filled with indigo, sage green and small touches of cream so it never flattens into a single block of red. Around it, the spandrels pick up the same rust and pull it into the border transition. The main border is a deep indigo navy, nearly black where the pile is densest, and it is populated with sage green leaves, salmon pink blossoms, ivory rosettes and pale blue tracery. The guard stripes lift the palette with a lighter teal blue, and that teal is the detail that makes the rug easy to live with, since it cools the reds and connects to blue upholstery as readily as the ivory connects to plaster and oak. Under daylight the tones read soft and dusty; under lamplight the rust and indigo deepen considerably.

Kashan: Weaving Town and Weave Quality

Kashan lies in central Persia, north of Isfahan, and its looms inherit the Safavid court workshop tradition along with unusually soft, lustrous local wool. That combination is why a Kashan can hold a curved medallion outline and a flowing vine without the stepped, angular compromises you see in village weaving. This piece is hand-knotted with a wool pile on a cotton foundation, and the reverse shown in the last photograph makes the construction plain: small, regular knots, straight rows and clear pattern definition through to the back, which is the honest test of a workshop rug. The palette, the drawing style and the wear-pattern of the pile all point to genuine age rather than a recent reproduction, and the signs used to date an Oriental rug are worth reading alongside these photos. Incidentally, this is the design most people already know by sight: when you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor.