9'6" x 14' Persian Kashan Rug | Classic Red Field, Navy Medallion | 1980s Wool

This is the drawing room format of the classic city weave: a 9'6" x 14' hand-knotted wool rug from Kashan in central Persia, woven in the 1980s and still carrying a full, even pile with no thin spots or restoration. The proportions suit a long room, and buyers shopping 10x14 Persian rugs will recognise how rarely a piece this large arrives with the field this clean. The back, visible in the final photograph, shows a tight cotton foundation, crisp knot rows and the red weft line typical of the town. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity that records the origin, materials, size and hand-knotted construction of this exact piece.

Design and Motifs

The layout is the textbook Kashan formula, drawn with unusual care. A pointed, lobed medallion sits dead centre, its indigo ground filled with small palmettes and blossoms and its inner cartouche worked in ivory around a pale blue rosette. Slender pendants extend above and below on the long axis. The surrounding field is not left open: it carries a dense all-over arrangement of curling arabesque vines, serrated saz leaves, rosettes and lotus palmettes that radiate outward from the medallion in mirrored halves. Ivory spandrels close each of the 4 corners with their own scrolling vinework. The main border runs on indigo with alternating turtle palmettes and floral cartouches, flanked by a pale turquoise guard stripe and several narrow meander bands that step the design down cleanly to the red selvage.

A Red Field Read in Crimson, Indigo and Ivory

The ground is a deep madder red that pulls toward crimson and raspberry where the light hits the wool, a tone that reads far warmer in a room than a flat brick red would. Against it, the medallion, spandrel outlines and main border are a near black indigo blue that gives the composition its weight. The drawing itself is where the rest of the palette lives: ivory and cream for the medallion centre and corner grounds, sage and olive green through the leaves and vine tips, soft rose and salmon in the smaller blossoms, and touches of pale sky blue and turquoise scattered across the field. Small gold and camel accents appear in the border cartouches. The overall effect is rich rather than busy, because the ivory and turquoise act as breathing room between the red and the navy.

Kashan: The Town and the Weave

Kashan lies in central Persia, north of Isfahan, and its looms trace back to the Safavid court workshops that set the standard for the curved, floral city style. The town's advantage has always been its wool, soft and lustrous enough to hold a fine knot and take dye deeply, which is why Persian Kashan rugs keep their colour and sheen decades after weaving. This piece is a good example of 1980s workshop production: symmetrical knotting on a cotton warp and weft, a compact handle, and a level pile that has worn evenly across nearly 14 feet of length. If you want to place the weave in time yourself, our guide on how to date an Oriental rug covers the tells. And when you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor, which is exactly the design family this rug belongs to.