9'4" x 12'6" Persian Kashan Rug | Wool | Navy Blue

A rectangular carpet of 9'4" x 12'6", hand-knotted in Persia to the Kashan pattern, with a wool pile of 3/8". At a glance it reads as a dark ground carpet: a deep navy field carrying a dense floral tracery, a red medallion at the centre, red corner pieces and a wide red border. It is a large size, long enough to hold a dining table with its chairs pulled clear.

Design

The field is covered edge to edge in a curvilinear floral scheme: palmettes, open rosettes and small five-petalled blossoms strung on thin vines, with slender serrated leaves running between them. At the centre sits a lobed red lozenge medallion, its interior filled with ivory scrolling arabesques around a pale blue star rosette, and a cusped pendant reaching above and below. Red spandrels close the four corners with matching ivory scrollwork. The main border runs a rosette and palmette vine on red, flanked by narrow ivory and sky blue guard stripes and a fine meander at the outer edge. Set into the border at one end is a small ivory panel worked with an inscription, shown close up in the fourth photograph.

Colour

Navy blue holds the field, dark enough in the full views to read almost black and opening up to indigo in the detail shots. Against it the medallion, spandrels and border are madder red, a clear cool red rather than a brick tone. The drawing is carried in ivory, which outlines most of the flowers and keeps the pattern legible, with pale sky blue in the rosette centres and guard stripes, rose pink in the smaller blossoms, olive green in the leaves, and small touches of saffron and walnut brown scattered through the vinework.

Making

Hand-knotted in Persia with a 3/8" wool pile on a fine, evenly spaced foundation, the knot rows visible in the photograph of the back. The Kashan drawing is a workshop pattern rather than a village one, which is why the curves stay true through the medallion and the border vine turns the corners cleanly. The pile is even across the field with no thin areas showing in the photographs, and the condition is recorded as excellent.