9'10" x 13'4" Persian Kashmar Rug | Navy Floral Medallion | Signed Cartouche

This is a full room size Persian Kashmar, hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation and carrying a woven signature cartouche in the upper border, which tells you it left a named workshop rather than an anonymous loom. The navy field is packed edge to edge with curling vine, palmettes and small rosettes, anchored by a deep red medallion and framed by salmon corner spandrels that lift the whole piece. Pile depth is even, the ends and sides are sound, and the rug is in excellent condition with no repairs. At just under 10 feet wide it sits comfortably in the 10x13 Persian rugs range, which is the standard footprint for a formal living room or a large dining table with chairs pulled back. Every rug we ship carries a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The layout is the classic Khorasan medallion and corner composition, drawn with a curved line rather than the angular village style. At the center sits an elongated lobed medallion on a red ground, its core a light blue cartouche holding an 8 petal rosette in rust and ivory. Out of the medallion run two slender pendants, each ending in a sprig of stylized blossoms. The navy field around it is not left open: it carries a continuous all over lattice of arabesque vine, serrated saz leaves, lotus palmettes and scattered small flowers, so dense that the ground reads as texture from a standing height. The 4 corner spandrels break to salmon and repeat the same vocabulary in reverse, which gives the eye a clear frame. The border system runs 7 bands deep, a wide navy main border of alternating palmette and rosette turning around a vine, flanked by ivory guard stripes of running floral meander and finer navy and red minor stripes. The ivory cartouche in image 4 holds the weaver's signature in Persian script.

Color Palette

The dominant note is a deep midnight navy, close to indigo black in low light and opening into true blue where the light rakes across the pile. Against it the medallion is a cool raspberry red, a touch blued rather than tomato, and the same red repeats in the border palmettes and in small blossom heads throughout the field. The corners and the inner spandrel ground are a warm salmon that sits somewhere between peach and dusty rose, and that single choice is what keeps the rug from reading heavy. Ivory appears in the guard stripes and in the petals of individual flowers, giving the drawing its outline and sparkle. Two blues do the detail work: a soft powder blue in the medallion core and in leaf tips, and a stronger cornflower in the minor border stripes. Small accents of olive green, brown and rust finish the leaves. Buyers shopping navy blue Persian rugs should know this one pairs easily with cream walls, walnut furniture and brass.

Kashmar and the Khorasan Weaving Tradition

Kashmar is a town in Khorasan, in the northeast of Persia, southwest of the provincial capital and inside the same weaving culture that produced Persian Mashad rugs. The region is known for long staple wool with a natural sheen, and for a weave that favors large room size formats worked on wide looms, which is why Kashmar pieces so often turn up in exactly this 10 by 13 proportion. The drawing follows the workshop tradition of the province, curved vine, balanced medallion, disciplined border, all set out from a paper cartoon rather than improvised. A signature cartouche in the border is the workshop's mark and is not something a bazaar weaver adds. The knotting here is regular, the back is clean and legible, and the ruler photograph lets you count the knots down the row for yourself.