9'10" x 13' Persian Kashan Rug | Red Field, Dark Indigo Floral Borders | Excellent Condition

This is a full room size Persian Kashan rug in the classic town formula: a deep red field carrying an all-over floral lattice, a lobed ivory and indigo medallion set dead center, and a wide dark indigo main border framed by sky blue guard stripes. It measures 9'10" x 13', which puts it squarely in the practical range of 10x13 Persian Kashan rugs that cover a large living room wall to wall or sit under a long dining table with chairs pulled out. The pile is 3/8" wool on a cotton foundation, even across the whole surface, with full ivory fringe at both ends and no repair or reweave anywhere in the field. Condition is excellent. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming origin, materials and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

The drawing is textbook Kashan, worked in the curvilinear court manner rather than any village shorthand. At the center sits a lobed medallion built in layers: an 8 petal rosette in sky blue and red at the core, then a pale blue cartouche outlined in ivory, then an ivory field of split palmettes, then a dark indigo surround with pendant finials reaching north and south. The red field around it is not left open. It carries a continuous system of vine scroll, Shah Abbas palmettes, serrated saz leaves and small rosettes, all drawn so the pattern mirrors across the long and short axes without ever reading as mechanical. The 4 corner spandrels are indigo, filled with ivory and sky blue arabesque, and they step cleanly into the main border. That main border runs an undulating vine with alternating large palmettes and olive green cartouches, flanked by light blue guard bands of paired florals and a narrow ivory meander on the outer edge. Six distinct border bands in total, which is the kind of layering that tells you a cartoon was followed row by row.

A Deep Red Field Against Dark Indigo

The field is a true madder-toned red, warm and slightly raspberry at the surface where the wool takes the light, deepening toward brick where the pile lies the other way. Against it the borders and the medallion ground read as dark indigo, almost black in shadow, which is what gives the rug its depth from across a room. The secondary palette is where it gets interesting: a soft sky blue runs through the guard stripes, the medallion core and the corner arabesques, cooling the red down; ivory appears as outline on nearly every motif, so the pattern stays legible instead of blurring; olive green fills the leaves and some of the border cartouches; and a dusty rose turns up in the smaller flowerheads with touches of pale yellow and sage in the rosettes. In a room with warm wood floors or cream walls the red dominates and the blues act as accent. Under cooler light the indigo border takes over and the field settles into a richer burgundy.

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 reputation rests on two things: soft lustrous local wool that takes dye beautifully and holds a sheen for decades, and the classic formula of red field, navy lobed medallion and ivory spandrels, which is exactly what this piece delivers. It is the most recognized Persian design in America, and if you look closely when you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. On this rug the knotting is tight and regular, as the back photo shows, with the warps clearly countable and the pattern crisp enough to carry fine ivory outlines only 1 or 2 knots wide. The 3/8" pile has been kept low in the Kashan manner, which is what preserves the drawing, and the wool still has body and spring underfoot across all 128 square feet.