9'3" x 13'1" Persian Kashan Rug | Navy Blue Field with Ivory Medallion | Red Floral Border

This is the classic city formula worked in reverse: instead of the familiar red ground, the weaver set the whole composition on deep navy blue and pushed the red out into the border, which gives the rug far more depth than the standard version and makes the ivory medallion read like a lamp in a dark room. It measures 9'3" x 13'1", hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation, and the pile is in excellent condition with the drawing still crisp from medallion to selvage. At this footprint it belongs with the large Persian rugs that anchor a whole room rather than float in the middle of one. If you want the background before you buy, our guide to Persian Kashan rugs covers the weave and the workshop tradition in detail. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

A lobed central medallion sits dead center, built in three layers: an ivory core holding a light blue 8 petal rosette, a rose-red surround filled with small blossoms, and a scalloped navy outline that separates it from the field. Pendants run off the medallion top and bottom along the long axis, and the 4 corners carry ivory spandrels drawn with the same vocabulary at reduced scale. The field itself is a dense all-over of curling arabesque vines, serrated palmette heads, split leaves and open rosettes, laid out in mirrored repeat rather than as scattered filler, which is what separates workshop drawing from village drawing. The main border is a red ground turtle-and-palmette meander with reciprocal vine scrolls, flanked on both sides by narrow guard stripes of small ivory rosettes on dark ground, and the whole thing closes with a plain navy outer stripe and white cotton fringe at both ends.

A Study in Navy Blue, Red and Ivory

The field is a true indigo navy, dark enough at a distance to read almost black in the corners of the room and then opening up under light into a deep blue that carries the entire floral drawing. Against it the reds do the work: a warm brick red in the main border, and a softer rose red inside the medallion and the corner pieces, the two shades close enough to relate but far enough apart that the border never flattens into the field. Ivory runs as the connective tissue, in the medallion core, the spandrels, the vine outlines and the guard stripes, and small hits of light turquoise, sky blue, gold and pale green appear inside individual flower heads, which is where the rug shows its hand-dyed wool. Under changing light the pile shifts between a cooler blue-black and a richer midnight tone, and the reds stay warm rather than orange, so the rug sits comfortably with wood floors, brass, cream walls and leather.

Kashan: The Weaving Town and the Weave

Kashan lies in central Persia, north of Isfahan, and its workshops trace their line back to the Safavid court weavers who set the standard for the medallion-and-spandrel layout that the rest of the rug world later copied. The town is known for soft lustrous local wool and for a tight, even, symmetrical knot that holds curved line without wobbling, which is exactly what you see here in the smooth lobes of the medallion and the unbroken sweep of the border vine. It is also the most recognizable Persian rug in America: when you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. This example is a full room-size workshop piece, woven flat and true with straight sides, tight selvages and a firm handle, and the pile depth across all 9'3" x 13'1" is consistent from end to end.