9'10" x 13' Persian Kashan Rug | Red Field, Navy Medallion Border | Semi-Antique Excellent Condition

This is the classic central Persian formula executed with real discipline: a deep red field packed with flowering vine, a navy lobed medallion with an ivory heart, and navy spandrels that pull the eye back to the center. At 9'10" x 13' it sits squarely in the most usable of the large formats, wide enough to carry a full seating group and long enough to anchor a formal room, which is why 10x13 Persian rugs move faster than almost any other size we import. The pile is a dense 3/8" wool on a cotton foundation, the ends are intact with clean ivory fringe, and the back reads tight and even with no repairs, patching or reweaving. Condition is excellent, with the soft surface sheen that only comes from good wool and careful handling. It ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming it as a hand-knotted rug made in Persia.

Design and Motifs

The drawing is pure Kashan. A lobed diamond medallion sits dead center, stepped at the shoulders and finished with hooked pendants top and bottom, with an 8 petal rosette inside an ivory cartouche at its core. Around it the red field is filled edge to edge with an all-over system of palmettes, rosettes, iris and tulip sprays, serrated leaves and thin scrolling vine that never repeats twice in the same place. The 4 corners carry navy spandrels drawn with the same vocabulary, so the field reads as a single continuous garden interrupted by the medallion rather than as a panel with decoration added. The main border is a broad navy band of alternating palmettes and rosettes linked by a curling vine, framed on both sides by narrow light blue guard stripes of small repeating flowerheads and a thin ivory meander. It is formal, symmetrical and legible from across a room, which is exactly what this design was built to do.

A Deep Red Field Framed in Navy and Ivory

The field is a deep, slightly rose-leaning red that goes warmer under lamplight and cooler in daylight, with the natural variation in the wool giving it depth instead of flatness. Against it the medallion, spandrels and main border read as a very dark navy that edges toward aubergine in the detail photographs, a shade deep enough to function as black at a distance while still showing blue up close. Ivory does the lifting: the medallion center, the scattered flowerheads in the field, and the fine outlines that keep every stem separate from its neighbor. Between the borders run bands of soft light blue, close to a faded sky tone, and the flowers themselves bring in rose pink, teal, saffron gold, pale green and small touches of brick. The palette is traditional but not heavy, and the red and navy combination sits comfortably with dark wood, brass and antique furniture.

Kashan, Central Persia, and How It Was Woven

Kashan lies in central Persia north of Isfahan and has been a weaving town since the Safavid court workshops, which is where the formula of red field, navy lobed medallion and ivory spandrels comes from. The town's reputation rests on two things: soft lustrous local wool that takes dye beautifully and holds a sheen for decades, and a tradition of curved-line drawing that demands a high enough knot count to render a vine without breaking it into steps. That control is visible here in the medallion outlines and the thin tendrils of the field. Anyone wanting the background before buying should read our Persian Kashan rugs guide, and it is worth noting how familiar the design already is: when you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. This example is a workshop-quality town weave on cotton warps, beaten down firmly, with a pile left long enough at 3/8" to take decades of real use.