9'6" x 12'11" Persian Kashan Rug | Signed Pistachio Green Classic Medallion | Excellent Condition

This is a signed room size Kashan in the softest palette the town weaves: a pistachio green ground cooled by pale blue, drawn edge to edge with fine floral scrollwork and carrying a woven cartouche at the head of the field. The wool has the quiet sheen that good Kashan fleece develops with age, the 3/8" pile is even from selvage to selvage, and the piece lies flat and true in a proportion that suits 10x13 Persian rugs in a full seating area. If you want the background on the type before you buy, our guide to Persian Kashan rugs covers the workshop tradition in detail. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The layout is the classic Kashan formula executed with unusual delicacy. A lobed pale blue medallion sits dead center, closed by a small rosette of copper, navy and ivory, and framed by navy arabesques that curl back on themselves in perfect mirrored pairs. Four corner spandrels repeat the same blue ground and the same drawing, so the eye reads the medallion twice over. Between them the field is packed with scrolling vine, palmettes, split leaves, lotus heads, tiny eight petal rosettes and slender cypress-like sprays, with small birds tucked into the vinework where you would otherwise expect a leaf. The main border carries a running floral meander with large cartouche-shaped palmettes at the 4 corners and midpoints, flanked by narrow guard stripes of blossom and vine. At the top of the field a crescent cartouche carries woven Persian script, the weaver's signature panel, worked in navy on ivory above a gold palmette.

The Pistachio Green and Pale Blue Palette

Pistachio green is the base note here, a muted, slightly dusty green that carries the open ground of the field and the outer frame of the rug. Over it the weaver laid a pale sky blue for the medallion, the spandrels and the main border, which is what gives the piece its cool, washed look from a distance. The detail work is where the color lives: ivory and cream for the outlines and the larger palmettes, deep navy for the arabesque line and the flower centers, copper and cinnamon for the leaf tips and the central rosette, and small punctuations of rose, soft teal and a single true red in the flower hearts. There is no harsh contrast anywhere, which is rare and makes the rug easy to place against grey, oatmeal, walnut or off-white. It reads as a light rug rather than a dark one, and it lifts a room instead of anchoring it in red and navy the way most Kashans do.

Kashan: The Weaving Town and the Quality of the Weave

Kashan sits in central Persia, north of Isfahan, and its workshops trace their drawing directly back to the Safavid court weaving tradition. The town's own wool is soft and lustrous, which is why a Kashan ages into a sheen rather than going dull, and its weavers work on a cotton foundation with a tight, regular knot that holds a curved line cleanly. You can see that discipline on the back of this piece, where the knot rows are straight and the color changes are crisp at the edges of every palmette. It is the most recognizable Persian city rug in the world: when you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. A signed cartouche puts this one in the workshop category rather than the anonymous commercial run, and at 9'6" x 12'11" in excellent condition with full even pile, it is a piece bought to be used for decades.