9'8" x 12'11" Persian Kashmar Rug | All Over Rosette Lattice | Sapphire Blue Field, Excellent Condition

This is a full room size Persian Kashmar, hand-knotted in wool on a cotton foundation, measuring 9'8" x 12'11" and sitting squarely in the 10x13 Persian rugs class that most American dining rooms and living rooms are built around. What sets it apart from the usual medallion piece is the field: instead of one central figure, the weaver covered the whole surface in a strict repeating lattice of small rosettes, so the rug reads as texture and color from a standing height and only breaks into individual flowers when you look down at your feet. The pile is an even 3/8", the handle is firm, the sides and ends are intact, and the condition is excellent with no repairs or wear to report. It ships with our certificate of authenticity documenting origin, materials and hand-knotted construction.

Design and Motifs

The field is an all over rug layout drawn on a diagonal grid. Thin ivory vines connect from one node to the next, and at every crossing the weaver set a small round rosette, alternating between a scalloped ivory flower, a squared 4 lobed blossom in tan and aubergine, and a gold or rust colored disc with a pink center. Between the rosettes sit tiny serrated leaf sprays and star shaped filler flowers, which is what keeps the repeat from looking mechanical: no two adjacent nodes carry the same combination of colors. There is no medallion and no corner spandrel, so the pattern runs unbroken from one end of the 12'11" length to the other. The border system is generous, 7 stripes in all. A wide madder red main band carries large ivory rosettes set between paired palmettes and reciprocal hooks, flanked on both sides by navy vine stripes, a fine ivory meander, and a pink and ivory barber pole stripe that gives the frame its sparkle. The outermost navy guard stripe finishes the rug cleanly against the blue selvedge.

The Sapphire Field and Madder Red Frame

Blue is the whole argument of this rug. The ground is a saturated sapphire that shifts with the nap, showing a cooler steel cast when viewed from one end and warming toward cobalt from the other, the natural abrash of hand-dyed wool rather than any irregularity. Against that blue the ivory rosettes read almost white and give the field its polka dot rhythm, while the secondary flowers bring in soft camel and tan, brick and rust red, a dusty pink, and a clear old gold. Green appears only in small quantities, in the centers of a handful of rosettes and in the little leaf sprays, and it is a muted sage rather than a bright emerald. The main border reverses the balance completely: a warm brick red field with ivory and navy drawing, which is what makes the blue center look as deep as it does. Navy outlines throughout the design hold every motif in place and keep the palette looking crisp rather than busy. In practice this is a rug that anchors cool grays, walnut and cherry woods, and white or oatmeal walls without demanding that the rest of the room match it.

Kashmar and the Khorasan Weaving Tradition

Kashmar is a town in Khorasan, the large province of northeastern Persia, and it built its reputation in the 20th century on exactly this kind of work: big, honest, room size rugs woven on cotton warps with the tough local wool of the region. It shares that tradition with its better known neighbor, and buyers researching the area usually start with Persian Mashad rugs before they find Kashmar, which tends to be the better value of the two. The weave here is fine enough to draw a rosette barely an inch across and still keep the ivory outline and the pink center legible, which is not a given at this scale, and the back shows straight, regular rows with no pulled lines or crowding at the edges. The Khorasan fleece is long stapled and slightly springy, so a 3/8" pile of it stands up to a dining table and chairs far better than its height suggests, and it takes on a quiet sheen as it is walked on. A rug of this size took a single loom and a pair of hands a long stretch of time, and the evenness of the pattern from end to end is the evidence.