9'11" x 12'10" Persian Kashan Rug | All Over Boteh and Rosette Design | Semi Antique Red Orange and Ivory

This is the quieter, more collectible side of Kashan weaving: no central medallion at all, just a continuous red orange field carrying rosettes and curled boteh from selvage to selvage, framed by a broad ivory border. At 9'11" x 12'10" it covers a formal room the way the classic Persian Kashan rugs were meant to, with the pattern reading as texture from standing height and as individual flowers once you sit down on it. The wool has already developed the low sheen that only comes from age and use, the 3/8" pile is even across the whole field, and the handle is firm without being board-stiff. Condition is excellent, and buyers shopping 10x13 Persian rugs will find very few all over examples this clean. Every rug we ship leaves Freeport with a certificate of authenticity recording origin, materials and measurements.

Design and Motifs

The field is built on a repeating offset grid. Large 8 petal rosettes sit inside serrated star outlines, alternating between ivory grounds and dark navy grounds so the eye picks up diagonal rows in both directions. Between them run paired boteh, the curled paisley drop, each one drawn with an outer ivory or orange shell and a small blue eye, and the gaps are filled with tiny 4 square cross motifs and leaf sprigs that keep the red ground from ever reading as empty. There is no medallion and no open corner spandrel in the field, which is the all over Kashan formula. The main border carries big rosette and palmette heads on ivory, linked by a scrolling vine, flanked by navy guard stripes of small flowerheads and a lighter blue minor stripe. Outside all of it runs a wide plain red band to the selvage, visible clearly in the corner photograph, a finishing touch that gives the pattern a clean stop rather than a crowded edge.

The Red Orange and Ivory Palette

The dominant note is a warm red orange, closer to brick and terracotta than to cherry, and it is laid down with enough abrash to look alive rather than printed. Against it the ivory does all the structural work: ivory rosette grounds scattered through the field, an ivory main border that lifts the whole rug, and ivory highlights on the boteh outlines. Deep navy appears as the counterweight, filling roughly half the star cartouches and both guard stripes, while a soft powder blue runs through the smaller flowerheads and leaf tips and keeps the warm tones from going heavy. Smaller quantities of pale celadon green, soft rose and a muted olive show up inside the rosette centers, and the pile has a honeyed sheen where the light catches it. Overall it is a warm room rug, flattering to wood floors, walnut and mahogany furniture, cream upholstery and brass, and the ivory border gives it a bright edge that a solid red field would not have.

Kashan: Weaving City of Central Persia

Kashan sits in central Persia, north of Isfahan, and its workshops trace their drawing directly back to the Safavid court tradition. The city built its reputation on soft, lustrous local wool and on disciplined curvilinear drawing, which is exactly what this piece shows: every rosette in the grid matches its neighbors, the vine in the border turns at the same radius each repeat, and the corners resolve properly on all 4 sides rather than being cut off mid motif. That kind of corner resolution on an all over design is a workshop skill, not a village shortcut. Kashan is also the Kashan most Americans have already seen without knowing it, because when you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. Woven on a cotton foundation with a hand-knotted wool pile and finished with hand-tied cotton fringe, this one is a straightforward, honest example of why the name carries weight.