8' x 12' Persian Kashan Rug | Ivory Field, Sage Green Border | Semi-Antique 1970s

This Persian Kashan rug came off the loom in the 1970s and takes the classic Kashan formula in a lighter direction: instead of the usual red ground, the whole 8' x 12' field is left open ivory, and the weight of the design is carried by a soft sage green border and by blues that run from deep indigo to bright turquoise. It is hand-knotted in wool with a 3/8" pile on a cotton foundation, and at 8 feet by 12 feet it sits squarely in the large Persian rugs bracket that suits a full seating group or a 8 seat dining table. Condition is excellent, with even pile and clean, original ivory fringe at both ends. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity recording origin, age, materials and size.

Design and Motifs

A round central medallion sits dead center, packed with fine ivory and salmon arabesque scroll that spirals out from a small blue rosette, with blue palmettes ringing the outer edge and a slender pendant reaching toward each end of the field. Around it the ivory ground is deliberately sparse: detached rosettes, 8 petal turquoise flowerheads, curled saz leaves and a few thin red stems float in the open space, which is what gives this piece its calm. The most distinctive element is the border. Rather than a straight band, the green frame is drawn as a continuous scalloped ogee that swells and pinches along all 4 sides, outlined in navy and filled with ivory vine, small palmettes and paired leaves. Outside it a cream outer field carries large scrolling blue leaf forms that curl in at the corners and meet in a cusped crest at the center of each end. It is a border treatment that reads almost architectural, and it makes the rug look framed rather than edged.

Ivory, Sage Green and Blue

The ground is a warm ivory with a faint cream cast, not a bleached white, and the wool has picked up enough sheen over 50 years that the field changes tone as you walk past it. The border green is muted and dusty, closer to sage or pistachio than to a garden green, and it is outlined throughout in a darker olive that keeps the scalloped edge crisp. Blue does most of the drawing: a near black indigo for the outlines and leaf forms, a medium cornflower for the palmettes, and a light turquoise that lifts the smaller flowerheads. Accents come in small doses, madder red in the vine stems and rosette centers, a rust or terracotta orange in a few petals, and points of saffron gold at the heart of the larger flowers. Against the ivory the palette stays cool and restrained, which is why this colorway works in rooms where a traditional red Kashan would dominate.

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 name on soft, lustrous local wool and on curvilinear drawing done well enough to hold a perfect circle in a medallion, which is exactly what you see here in the unbroken sweep of the scalloped border and the symmetry of the center. It is also the most recognizable Persian rug in American living rooms, to the point that when you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. The back of this piece shows a tight, even cotton foundation with straight, regular rows, the mark of an experienced town weaver rather than a village loom, and the 3/8" pile has worn evenly from end to end with no thin areas. Semi-antique Kashans of this generation are the sweet spot for buyers who want real age and hand-spun character without antique pricing.