9'10" x 19'5" Persian Kashan Rug | Greenish Ivory Field, Sage Green Borders | Signed Cartouche

Almost 20 feet of gallery length in a pale, cool palette that is unusual for the city: this signed piece belongs to the small group of Persian Kashan rugs woven in greenish ivory rather than the familiar madder red. The field is a single sweep of ivory with a green cast, drawn edge to edge with fine floral vinework, and the main border runs in soft sage. A woven cartouche sits at one end above the border, the mark of a workshop weaver who expected the piece to be recognized. At 9'10" x 19'5" it sits firmly among oversize Persian rugs, the scale that suits a long formal room, a ballroom or a double-depth living space. The wool pile is full and even throughout, the cotton fringe is intact at both ends, and the rug ships with a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The layout is the classic Kashan formula stretched to gallery proportions. A lobed central medallion holds the middle, small in relation to the field and finished top and bottom with slender stepped pendants that reach far up and down the length. Around it the ivory ground carries a dense all-over pattern of palmettes, rosettes, curled lancet leaves and scrolling vine, drawn in true curved line rather than the angular village shorthand, with the motifs mirrored precisely across both axes. Deep floral spandrels anchor all 4 corners and are outlined so the ivory field reads as an arched panel. The border scheme is generous: a wide sage main band of alternating palmettes and blossoms on a vine, flanked by ivory guard stripes of reciprocal leaf and rosette, then narrow outer stripes that close the whole design off cleanly. The signature cartouche breaks the border rhythm at one end, sitting just inside the ivory guard band.

A Greenish Ivory Field and Sage Green Borders

The field is ivory with a distinct green cast, closer to old parchment than to cream, and it shifts with the light across a rug this long. Against it the drawing is worked in pistachio and sage green, two or three values of light blue, a cooler teal, and outlines of dark navy that keep every flower crisp. Small hits of soft rust and coral appear in the flower centers, with warm gold and tan in the leafwork, and those are the only genuinely warm notes in the whole palette. The main border is a pale sage green, lighter than the greens inside the field, and the guard stripes return to ivory so the border reads as a band of green framed in cream. It is a quiet, cool, almost celadon rug, and it sits easily with grey, blue, walnut and pale stone interiors where a red Kashan would dominate.

Kashan Weaving and the Signed Cartouche

Kashan lies in central Persia, north of Isfahan, and its looms trace back to the Safavid court workshops. The city built its name on soft lustrous local wool and on disciplined curvilinear drawing, and when you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. Weaving a rug of this length demands a workshop rather than a home loom: the warp has to stay true over more than 19 feet, and the medallion, pendants and 4 spandrels have to line up after months of work. This one holds its symmetry from end to end, the pile is clipped low enough to keep the fine vinework legible, and the sides and both end finishes are original. The cartouche is the weaver's own mark, and a signed oversize Kashan in a rare greenish ivory colorway is a considerably scarcer thing than the standard red-ground room size.