9'10" x 12'2" Persian Kashan Rug | Signed Apple Red Open Field | Navy Floral Medallion

A signed weaving with the confidence to leave most of its field bare, this Persian Kashan rug measures 9'10" x 12'2" and carries a small woven cartouche set into the upper border, the mark a workshop leaves only on a piece it is willing to stand behind. The wool pile is clipped to 3/8", short enough to hold the fine drawing of the medallion crisply, and the cotton foundation lies flat and true with no ripple along either side. Condition is excellent, with full even pile from selvage to selvage and clean original ends. Among the group of 9x12 Persian rugs we handle, an open-field Kashan of this scale is the one that most often ends up under a dining table or centered in a formal front room. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity documenting origin, materials and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

The composition is the classic Kashan formula handled with restraint. A single diamond medallion sits dead center, built in concentric rings: a small rosette at the core, then radiating sky blue petals, then a dense navy ground filled with curling arabesque vine, rose and ivory palmettes and small serrated leaves. Ivory pendants rise and fall from the top and bottom points, each one a miniature of the medallion itself, and tiny 4 lobed cloud knots float free in the red field beside the medallion's outer tips. The 4 corners carry deep navy spandrels drawn with the same vine work, their inner edges stepped and hooked so they read as a soft arch against the plain ground. Everything between medallion and spandrels is left open, which is what makes the piece work: the eye rests, and the drawing counts. The main border is a navy band of alternating palmettes and blossoms on a continuous meander, framed by sky blue guard stripes of small rosettes and a fine reciprocal minor stripe at the outer edge.

A Warm Apple Red Field Against Deep Navy

The field is a warm apple red, a clear cherry tone rather than a brick or rust red, and it shifts gently between lighter and deeper passages as the nap turns under the light, which is the honest signature of hand-spun wool taking dye at slightly different rates. Against it the borders and spandrels read almost black-blue at a distance and resolve into true indigo navy up close. Inside the medallion the palette opens right up: a mid sky blue ground, ivory and cream outlines that keep every stem legible, soft rose and salmon petals, touches of gold ochre in the leaf tips and small accents of sage green and a deeper wine red at the flower centers. The guard stripes lift the whole scheme with a paler cornflower blue. Red and navy is the most livable pairing in Persian weaving, and here the large expanse of open red gives the room a warm floor tone while the navy frame anchors the furniture arrangement.

Kashan Weaving and the Signed Cartouche

Kashan sits in central Persia, north of Isfahan, and its looms trace back to the Safavid court workshops of the 16th century. The town built its name on soft lustrous local wool and on one instantly recognizable formula: a red field, a lobed navy medallion and ivory or navy spandrels, drawn with a curved line that only a fine urban weave can carry. It is the Persian rug most Americans have seen without knowing its name; when you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. The woven cartouche in the upper border of this piece places it firmly in the workshop tradition rather than the village one, since a weaver signs only when the loom is run to a standard worth claiming. The back shows a tight, regular knot with clean color separation and no distortion in the medallion outline, and the low even clip confirms the pile has been kept, not worn down.