9'5" x 13' Persian Kashmar Rug | Historian Design | Navy Field with Vases, Birds & Deer | 1970s

This 9'5" x 13' Persian Kashmar was woven in the 1970s in Kashmar, a weaving town in the Khorasan province of northeastern Persia, and it has survived in perfect condition with full even pile, tight selvages and clean original ends. The midnight navy field is filled edge to edge with flowering vines, footed vases, paired songbirds and small grazing deer, all gathered around a single turquoise medallion with matching pendants. Spread out at room size it sits comfortably among 10x13 Persian rugs meant for a main living space, and the drawing rewards close looking rather than reading as one flat pattern from across the room. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming origin, materials and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

The cartoon is the Kashmar Historian layout, a densely populated garden built around one lobed turquoise medallion that holds a small ribbed urn at its center, with a spade shaped pendant dropping from each end. Out in the navy field the weaver has drawn dozens of vessels: tall handled vases flanked by long tailed birds, striped bowls, lidded jars and shallow footed cups, all connected by thin salmon vinework studded with rose pink rosettes. Look closely and pale deer step through the scroll near the ends, peacocks perch along the vines, and small green tablets sit either side of the medallion like woven bookmarks. Scalloped crimson spandrels carrying curled acanthus leaves close off all 4 corners, and the wide ivory main border continues the theme with a procession of cartouches, each enclosing its own urn or vase, separated by upright vessels and red star rosettes. Narrow blue guard stripes with a running vine frame the whole composition.

A Navy Ground Lit by Turquoise and Salmon

The field is a deep midnight indigo, dark enough to read almost black in low light and clearly blue when the sun hits it, and that depth is what makes everything else glow. The medallion is worked in bright turquoise and teal with orange palmettes and ivory outlines, the single strongest note of color in the rug. Around it the vine tracery runs in soft salmon and tan, the blossoms in rose pink and cherry red, the vases in gold, apricot, coral and slate grey with green and white touches on their rims. The spandrels are a rich crimson shading into dusty pink at their edges, and the main border is a warm buttery ivory that lifts the whole perimeter and keeps a 9'5" x 13' rug from feeling heavy on the floor. Small accents of emerald green and pale blue are scattered through the field, and the overall effect is a navy and multicolored palette that works against both cool grey and warm wood floors.

Kashmar and the Khorasan Weaving Tradition

Kashmar sits in Khorasan, the northeastern province whose weaving has long been anchored by the workshops of Persian Mashad rugs, and Kashmar looms work in that same curvilinear city tradition rather than in village geometry. The result is what you see here: flowing vine, rounded medallion lobes, pictorial vessels and animals that only hold their shape at a respectable knot count. The pile is Khorasan wool on a cotton foundation, spun with enough natural lustre that the salmon vinework picks up light as you walk around the rug, and it has been clipped to a medium height that keeps the fine outlines crisp. Handle the back and the weave is regular and firm across the full 13 foot length, with no bowing or drawing-in, which is why a rug of this age still lies dead flat.