9'3" x 13'2" Persian Kashan Rug | Dark Blue All Over Floral | 1980s Excellent Condition

Most Kashans you see are red with a big navy medallion. This one goes the other way: a deep, almost midnight blue ground covered corner to corner in flowering vinework, with no medallion at all to interrupt it. It was woven in the 1980s, and after four decades the 3/8" wool pile is still standing tall and even, the ends and sides are sound, and the colors have settled rather than faded. At 9'3" x 13'2" it is a true room size piece, one of the more useful proportions among large Persian area rugs, and it reads as a single quiet field of blue from across a room. If you want the background on the weaving city itself, our Persian Kashan rug guide covers the tradition in detail. Every rug we sell leaves Freeport with a certificate of authenticity documenting origin, materials and construction.

Design and Motifs

The field is a classic Kashan all over floral design, drawn on a mirrored axis so that the pattern repeats symmetrically along both the length and the width without ever resolving into a center medallion. Thin camel and gold vine stems run the length of the rug, throwing off open palmettes, 8 petal rosettes, tulip and carnation heads, small star flowers and long curled saz leaves that hook back on themselves. The drawing is dense but never crowded, and the weaver kept enough dark ground showing between the blossoms that each motif stays legible up close, as image 6 shows. The border system is elaborate: a wide ivory main band carrying cusped cartouche shaped palmettes in sky blue and sage, flanked on both sides by narrow navy guard stripes of running vine, then a broad pale sage and ivory outer band that frames the whole piece like a mat around a picture. Ivory cotton fringe finishes both ends.

A Midnight Blue Field with Sea Glass and Ivory

The ground is a dark indigo blue that shifts with the light, closer to black where the pile lies away from you and a clear deep navy where it leans toward the light. Against it the palette is cool and slightly faded in the best sense: chalky ivory and cream for the larger blossoms, a soft sea glass sage green that carries the outer border, two clear blues (a pale sky and a stronger mid blue) filling the rosettes, and warm camel and old gold for the vine work and the occasional large palmette. Tiny points of brick red and rose appear at the centers of the flowers, just enough warmth to keep the blue from going cold. The overall effect is a dark, quiet rug with a great deal of detail living inside it, and it works especially well in a room with pale walls, wood tones or brass.

Kashan, Central Persia, and the Weave

Kashan sits in central Persia north of Isfahan and has been weaving since the Safavid court workshops, which is why the city's drawing is so formal and its wool so recognizable: soft, lustrous local fleece that takes dye deeply and polishes rather than dulls underfoot. When you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. This example is built the way good Kashans are built, on a cotton foundation with a tight, regular knot and a moderate 3/8" pile, the back (image 9) showing clean, even rows and crisp definition of every small flower head. That combination of a firm handle and a compact pile is what lets a 40 year old rug of this size still sit flat, take furniture legs and come back after cleaning looking essentially new.