9'6" x 16'1" Persian Kashan Rug | Red Floral Field, Ivory Medallion | Signed Cartouche

This is a long, generously proportioned room rug in the classic central Persian formula, and it is one of the better examples of Persian Kashan rugs we have handled in this length. It measures 9'6" x 16'1", which puts it squarely among oversize Persian rugs built for long living rooms, wide great rooms and formal dining spaces where a 9x12 simply stops short. The pile is 3/8" hand-spun wool on a cotton foundation, still full and even across the whole surface, and the back photograph with the ruler shows the small, tightly packed knots and the straight, disciplined rows that separate a workshop Kashan from a village weave. A small woven cartouche sits at the top of the field, the weaver's mark that collectors look for on a piece of this scale. Every rug we sell ships with a certificate of authenticity confirming it is hand-knotted in Persia.

Design and Motifs

The drawing follows the Kashan canon with real confidence. At the center sits a lobed ivory medallion holding an 8 petal rosette in blue and red, framed by a deep navy cartouche outline and finished top and bottom with tall pendants that taper into the field. Around it the red ground is filled edge to edge with an all over floral system: curling palmettes, serrated lanceolate leaves, small Shah Abbasi blossoms, buds and thin arabesque vines that loop back on themselves rather than running in straight repeats. The 4 corners carry navy spandrels with ivory reserves, echoing the medallion so that the eye reads one continuous composition rather than separate parts. The main border is a wide navy band of alternating palmettes and rosettes linked by vine, held between narrow reciprocal guard stripes of small flowerheads on ivory and rust. Detail shots show how carefully the small forms are outlined in ivory, which keeps every flower legible against the dark ground even from standing height.

A Deep Red Field Against Indigo and Ivory

The field is a true Kashan red, a deep madder crimson with a faint blue undertone that reads warm under lamplight and slightly cooler by day. It is not flat: the wool takes the dye unevenly in the best way, so the ground shifts subtly as you walk around the rug. Against it the border and spandrels sit in a very dark indigo navy that looks near black in the corner shots and opens into clear blue where the light hits the pile. The medallion supplies the ivory, a soft unbleached cream rather than a bright white, and that same ivory repeats in the guard stripes and in the outlines of the floral work. Accent colors are used sparingly and well: burnt gold and ochre in the palmettes, dusty rose and salmon pink in the smaller blossoms, mid sky blue in the leaves, and touches of soft sage green scattered through the vine. The overall balance is red and navy, with just enough warm gold and rose to keep it from going heavy.

Kashan Weaving and Workshop Quality

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 medallion still being woven there today. The town's local wool is soft and unusually lustrous, which is why a Kashan develops a low sheen with use instead of going dull. Kashan is also the rug most Americans have already seen without knowing its name: when you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. Weaving a piece 16'1" long on a single loom is a commitment of years, and the discipline shows here in borders that stay true in width from one end to the other and a medallion that sits correctly on the long axis. The signed cartouche at the top of the field points to an established atelier rather than an anonymous commercial run, and with 3/8" of wool still standing evenly across the surface this one has many decades of use left in it.