9'6" x 12'7" Persian Kashan Rug | Navy Floral Field, Red Lobed Medallion | Excellent Condition

This is the Kashan formula turned inside out: instead of the usual red field, the weaver set a deep midnight navy ground under a red lobed medallion, and the whole rug reads darker, quieter and more formal than its red-field cousins. At 9'6" x 12'7" it is a true room-size piece that covers a standard 10 by 13 floor plan with pile to spare, and it sits comfortably in the company of other 10x13 Persian rugs we import directly. The pile is hand-knotted wool on a cotton foundation, still full and even across the field, with the slight sheen that good Kashan wool develops as it is walked on. It ships with a certificate of authenticity recording origin, materials and measurements.

Design and Motifs

A single elongated red medallion runs down the center of the field, stepped and lobed along its edges, finished top and bottom with a tall cusped pendant. Inside it, an ivory cartouche frames a sky blue 8 petal rosette with a small navy cross-shaped core, the detail visible in the close-up photographs. The navy field around it is not left open: it is filled with a continuous lattice of flowering vines, carnations, serrated leaves and small palmettes drawn in a curvilinear hand, each stem resolving cleanly rather than running into its neighbor. The 4 corners carry red spandrels filled with the same floral vocabulary, so medallion and corners answer each other across the field. The surround is a triple border, a broad red main band of palmettes and saffron vine scrolls set between ivory guard stripes of repeating rosettes, with a light blue outer band at the very edge that gives the whole rug a cool finishing line.

A Navy Ground Worked Against Crimson and Ivory

The field is a dense midnight navy that goes almost black in low light and opens into true indigo under a lamp, which is what makes this one of the more usable navy blue Persian rugs for a room with a lot of wood. Against it the medallion and borders are a clear crimson red, warm rather than orange, with the depth you expect from madder-family dye. The drawing is carried in ivory and cream, which outlines every vine and keeps the pattern legible over the dark ground. Inside the flowers the weaver used a surprisingly wide secondary palette: sky blue and slate blue petals, saffron and mustard gold in the vine scrolls, soft salmon and rose pink in the smaller blossoms, and small notes of olive green in the leaves. The ivory guard stripes and the pale blue outer band lift the whole border away from the field, and the overall effect is dark and formal from across the room but genuinely colorful up close.

Kashan: Central Persia and the Court Workshop Tradition

Kashan sits in central Persia, north of Isfahan, and its looms trace back to the Safavid court workshops. The town built its reputation on two things: soft, lustrous local wool that takes dye beautifully and holds a sheen, and the classic medallion formula of lobed center, floral field and spandrel corners that the rest of the weaving world has been copying ever since. Kashan is also the most familiar Persian rug in American interiors, and if you want a reference point, when you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. This piece is workshop-quality town weaving rather than village work: the curved lines in the medallion and the fine ivory outlining in the border take a knot count a village loom cannot hold, and the pile is clipped low and even so that detail stays crisp. If you want the background on how the type is graded and dated, our Persian Kashan rugs guide covers it in depth.