8' x 11'5" Persian Kashan Rug | Red Field with Navy Floral Medallion | Excellent Condition

This is the classic central Persian formula done properly: a deep red field, a navy lobed medallion with an ivory heart, and matching navy spandrels that pull the eye straight to the center. Woven in the 2000's on a cotton foundation with a tightly packed wool pile, it measures 8' x 11'5" and sits comfortably in the range buyers search as 8x11 Persian rugs, large enough to anchor a full seating group yet still short of oversize handling. The pile is even, the colors are unfaded, and the selvages and flat-woven ends are intact, which is why the condition reads Excellent. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity recording origin, materials and measurements.

Design and Motifs

The drawing is curvilinear from edge to edge. A 16 point lobed medallion sits dead center, built in layers: an ivory cartouche holding a small sky blue rosette, then a navy frame filled with rose and cream palmettes, then a scalloped ivory outline that reads crisply against the red. From the medallion, thin vines travel out across the whole field in a dense all over floral scheme of palmettes, 8 petal rosettes, serrated acanthus leaves and tiny curled cloud bands. The 4 corners carry navy and ivory spandrels drawn with the same vocabulary, so nothing in the composition feels borrowed or padded. The border system runs 7 bands deep: a wide navy main border of alternating palmettes and arabesque scrolls, flanked by pale blue vine guards and narrow ivory meander stripes that step the pattern down to the edge. Close inspection of the field (see the detail photos) shows how small each floral unit is, which is the test of a well drawn Kashan.

Color Palette in Detail

The ground is a true tomato red, bright and saturated rather than brick or rust, and the wool takes enough light to shift a shade or two as you walk around it. Against that, the medallion, spandrels and main border are a near black indigo navy, which is what gives the rug its graphic punch. Between those two heavyweights sit the soft tones: a chalky sky blue in the guard borders and in many of the small rosettes, clean ivory in the medallion core, the spandrel reserves and the outlining vines, and warm apricot and old gold in the leaf work and palmette shading. Rose pink flowers repeat through the field, and green appears as a quiet accent only, in the leaves and stems rather than as a block of color. Fringes and flatwoven ends are natural ivory cotton. If you are shopping the red and burgundy Persian rugs group, this one is on the clear, bright end of that range rather than the dark wine end.

Kashan Origin and Weaving Quality

Kashan sits in central Persia, north of Isfahan, and its looms trace back to the Safavid court workshops, which is why the town never really left the medallion and vine tradition. The local wool is soft and lustrous, and the weavers work on a cotton warp and weft that holds the rug flat and square, exactly as this piece lies. A well made persian Kashan rug is judged on whether the curved line stays smooth at small scale, and here the medallion outline and the vine scrolls hold their shape without the steps and jogs you see in coarser copies. It is also the most recognizable Persian design in America: when you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. For a buyer who wants one traditional rug that will still look right in 20 years, this is the design that does it.