9'7" x 12'8" Persian Kashan Rug | Burgundy Field & Navy Floral Medallion | 1980's Wool

Laid out flat, this 9'7" x 12'8" Persian rug reads as a single walled garden: a navy lobed medallion resting at the center of a deep burgundy field, then a broad indigo border and a pair of ivory guard stripes holding the whole thing in. It was knotted by hand in the 1980's, wool pile on a cotton foundation, and the pile is still full and even from selvedge to selvedge with the crisp outlines you can see in the close-up photographs. The footprint puts it squarely among the 10x13 Persian rugs that anchor a full living room seating group or run comfortably under a long dining table with chairs pulled out. Every rug we ship leaves Freeport with a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The drawing follows the classical medallion and corner formula. At the center sits an 8 lobed navy medallion built around an ivory cartouche of interlocking petals, with a small pendant finial reaching out at the top and bottom on the long axis. The burgundy field around it is not left open: it carries a dense all over scheme of arabesque vines, split palmettes, serrated leaves and multi-color rosettes, each motif mirrored across both axes so the rug is perfectly balanced end to end. Four navy corner spandrels close the field, and inside each one a red cartouche shaped panel holds its own miniature bouquet, a nice piece of drawing that only shows up when you stand over the corner. The main border is a navy ground carrying a repeat of large curled boteh paisleys alternating with rosette medallions, flanked by two ivory guard borders of trailing vine and small blossoms, then a narrow blue ribbon stripe and a plain burgundy outer band that finishes at a hand-tied cotton fringe.

Burgundy, Navy and Green in the Wool

The field is a warm burgundy that leans toward tomato red where the light catches the pile and settles into a deeper wine tone in the shadows, the natural play you get from good hand-spun wool rather than a flat printed red. Against it, the medallion, spandrels and main border are worked in a dark indigo navy that is almost black at the outlines, which is what gives the ivory drawing its snap. The ivory itself is a soft buttermilk cream, never chalky white, and it carries the guard borders and the heart of the medallion. Green does real work here: sea green and jade leaves scatter through the field, with pockets of teal in the palmettes and cartouches. Saffron gold rosettes punctuate the red ground at regular intervals, rose pink and salmon fill the flower heads, and chestnut brown appears in the curled leaves. Black is used sparingly as a fine outline color. The overall reading from across a room is red and navy, formal and quiet; up close it is a genuinely polychrome rug.

The Kashan Tradition and the Weave of This 9'7" x 12'8" Rug

Kashan sits in central Persia, north of Isfahan, and its workshops inherited the Safavid court tradition of the curved line: flowing vine work, a lobed medallion and ivory spandrels on a red ground, all drawn from a cartoon rather than from memory. That formula is the single most recognized look in the Persian rug world, and it is the one most Americans have already seen without knowing its name, because when you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. This piece is woven in that idiom, with a symmetrical knot on a cotton warp beaten down tightly enough to hold the fine outlines of the spandrel cartouches, and a soft lustrous wool that has taken on a low sheen through the years since the 1980's. If you want the background on the school and how the drawing is judged, our Persian Kashan rugs guide walks through it, and our notes on how to date an Oriental rug explain the wear, dye and back-of-the-rug clues that place a piece like this one. You can see the rest of our Persian Kashan rugs alongside it.