9'7" x 14' Persian Kashan Rug | Red Field with Sky Blue Borders | Semi-Antique Wool

This is a full room-size semi-antique Kashan, 9'7" x 14' of hand-knotted wool on a cotton foundation, with a 3/8" pile that still stands up evenly across the whole field. It belongs to the classic school of Persian Kashan rugs: red ground, black lobed medallion, matching spandrels, and a wide black main border held between sky blue guard stripes. At this footprint it covers a 12 or 14 seat dining table or a long living room with furniture fully on the rug, and it sits in the most useful part of our 10x14 Persian rugs selection. Every rug we ship leaves Freeport with a certificate of authenticity.

Design and Motifs

The drawing is the textbook Kashan formula, executed with more detail than most room-size examples carry. A black lobed medallion sits dead center with an ivory inner cartouche and a small rosette at its heart, finished at both ends with slender pendant finials. Four black spandrels close the corners, each one filled with ivory vinework and small palmettes. Between them the red field is covered edge to edge with curling arabesque vines, 8 petal rosettes, serrated leaves and paired blossoms, all balanced on a mirrored axis so nothing repeats lazily. The main border runs a continuous turtle palmette and vine rhythm, with 4 narrow guard bands on either side.

A Red Field Read Against Sky Blue and Black

The field is a warm tomato red that has mellowed with age toward rose in the open areas, the kind of softening that only comes from wool dyed and walked on for decades. Against it the medallion, spandrels and main border read as near black, deep enough that the ivory and cream drawing inside them snaps forward. The surprise is the sky blue: two light blue guard stripes frame the main border and a brighter blue runs through the spandrel vines, cooling the whole composition down. Smaller touches of salmon, gold, pale green, brown and ivory appear in the blossoms, which is what keeps the red field from flattening out under lamplight.

Kashan, Central Persia, and How This One Was Woven

Kashan lies in central Persia north of Isfahan, and its weaving goes back to the Safavid court workshops. The town is known for soft, lustrous local wool and for a curved, disciplined line that needs a high knot count to hold. This piece is woven on a cotton warp and weft with a tight, even back, straight sides and original flat selvages, as the corner and reverse photographs show. It is also the most recognizable Persian design in America: when you watch Shark Tank there is a Persian Kashan on the floor. A 9'7" x 14' Kashan in this condition, with full pile and no restoration showing, is a piece you buy once.