9'6" x 13' Persian Kashmar Rug | Navy Zirkhaki Vase & Bird Design | 1970s, Excellent Condition

This is one of those Khorasan weavings that rewards sitting down in front of it. Across 9'6" x 13' of navy ground, the weaver has filled every inch with flower vases, winged bird cartouches, boteh forms and scrolling vine, then pulled it all back to a single brick red and teal medallion at center. The pile is wool on a cotton foundation, cut low enough that the drawing stays crisp, and after roughly 50 years the surface is still full and even edge to edge. It is a practical floor size for a 10x13 Persian rug room plan, and it ships with our certificate of authenticity confirming origin, age, materials and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

The design is recorded as Zirkhaki, and the name points to the soft khaki-beige tone that runs beneath the drawing and carries the vine work across the field. Structurally it is an all-over floral design with a center medallion: a small teal rosette core sits inside a brick red cartouche, flanked by two mirrored pendants, while the surrounding field repeats ivory flower vases, striped urns, ribbed palmettes and paisley boteh in strict 4 corner symmetry. The border is the showpiece. Large beige and ivory cartouches hold birds with long sweeping wing feathers, seated vases and tiny floral sprays, set against a teal and red vine ground framed by a plain navy outer band.

A Navy Field Lit by Beige, Brick Red and Teal

The ground is a deep inky navy blue, and almost every other color in the rug is read against it. Warm beige and peach do the heavy lifting, outlining the vases, wing feathers and vine scrolls so the pattern stays legible from across the room. Brick red appears in concentrated pools, in the medallion, in the border cartouches and in the small eight petal rosettes scattered through the field. Muted teal and a lighter sky tone open up the border ground and the inner vase panels, with ivory used sparingly as the brightest accent. There is no harsh contrast anywhere; the palette reads antique, settled and warm, which is exactly why these navy blue Persian rugs sit so easily with existing furniture.

Kashmar Weaving in Khorasan

Kashmar lies in Khorasan, in northeastern Persia, within the orbit of the great workshop city to its north, and its weavers work the same curvilinear repertoire you see in Persian Mashad rugs: cotton warps, a full clipped wool pile and large room sizes drawn from a cartoon rather than from memory. The detail here, including the bird cartouches and the striped urns, is only possible with a tight, disciplined knot count and a weaver following the design faithfully across more than 12 feet of length. Pieces from the 1970s like this one were woven when good Khorasan wool and natural-looking dye recipes were still standard, and the way this surface has aged, with even wear and no bare patches, tells you how it was made. Dating cues of this kind are covered in our guide on how to date an Oriental rug.