9'7" x 13'6" Persian Kashan Rug | All-Over Floral Field | Navy Medallion & Ivory Spandrels | Excellent Condition

This is a full formal room rug: at 9'7" x 13'6" the field runs unbroken from one end of the floor to the other, and the drawing never loses its rhythm along the way. The wool pile measures 3/8" and still stands upright through the center of the rug, where a worn piece would have flattened first, and the ivory cotton fringe is complete at both ends. Photograph 7 shows the reverse with a ruler laid across it, so you can see the small square knots, the straight rows and the cotton foundation for yourself. Among 10x14 Persian rugs this is the conservative, city-workshop version of the type, the one that works under a full dining table or a pair of sofas without competing with the furniture. It ships with a certificate of authenticity listing the origin, materials and knot construction, and the background to the type is covered in our Persian Kashan rugs guide.

Design and Motifs

The center carries a navy stepped diamond medallion with a pointed finial at each end, drawn inside a thin ivory outline. Within it sits an ivory lozenge, and inside that a soft grey-blue cartouche closed by a single 8 petal rosette at the exact midpoint of the rug. The 4 corners answer the medallion with navy spandrels filled with curling vine, and each spandrel is split by an ivory cloud-band panel that lightens the corners and keeps the layout from reading heavy. The field between medallion and spandrels is a dense all-over floral lattice: palmettes, lotus heads, round rosettes and serrated saz leaves linked by fine spiralling vine, with a small floral pendant set above and below the medallion on the long axis. The main navy border alternates large shaded palmettes with rosette clusters on an arabesque stem, and it is framed on both sides by light blue guard stripes carrying a small running flower and leaf meander, then narrow ivory and red reciprocal stripes. The outer edge finishes in a plain red selvage, visible in images 4 and 6, which draws the whole composition back together.

A Raspberry Red Field Against Deep Indigo Navy

The ground is a clear raspberry red with a rose undertone, lighter and cooler than the brick reds usual in red and burgundy Persian rugs, which is what makes this piece easier to live with in a room that already has warm wood or terracotta in it. Against that field the medallion, spandrels and main border are a very deep indigo navy that reads almost black in low light, as it does in the border close-up. The flowers carry the rest of the palette: chalky ivory and cream in the medallion core and cloud bands, rose and salmon pink through the palmettes, a muted olive to sage green on the leaves and stems, and a soft powder blue that appears in the guard stripes and scattered blossoms. Small quantities of ochre, apricot and walnut brown pick out single petals and vine joins, and those warm notes are what keep the red and navy from flattening into a two-tone rug. The detail photograph of the medallion shows the balance best: six or seven distinct colors inside a space of a couple of feet, none of them shouting.

Kashan: Central Persia and the Workshop Weave

Kashan sits in central Persia, north of Isfahan on the edge of the desert, and its looms descend directly from the Safavid court workshops of the 16th century. That inheritance is the reason a Kashan looks the way it does: a red field, a lobed or stepped navy medallion, ivory spandrels, and an all-over floral drawing executed on a tight double-wefted cotton foundation with the asymmetric Persian knot. The local wool is soft and takes a lustre with use, which is why the pile on this piece already has a slight sheen under raking light. The weave here is firm and regular, the rows sit straight across nearly 10 feet of width, and the fine outlining around each palmette tells you the knot count was high enough to carry a curved line rather than the stepped approximations you see on village work. If you want the shorthand for how familiar this look is: when you watch Shark Tank, there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. This one is the same family of rug, in a room size that is genuinely hard to find in good condition.